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PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND. 


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BViioePoie Pe Lea 2a 

Porter, bucius ‘Chapin: 
1880. 

China's challenge to 
Christianity 


DR. CH’ENG CHING-YI 


Chairman of the National Christian Conference held in Shang- 


hai in May, 1922. One of the wise, far-seeing and creative 
leaders of the Church of Christ in China. 


ERSOVLVCMEONT _ 


CHINA’S 
CHALLENGE ‘TO 
CHRISTIANITY 


LUCIUS CHAPIN PORTER 


MISSIONARY ce a MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Foreword 
CHAPTER 
1 CHINESE ATTITUDES TOWARD THE WEST . 1 
1. Basis of Optimism. 2. What the Chinese Say. 
3. Removing Un-Christlike Attitudes. 
Il Tue CHANGING ENVIRONMENT . . . 29 
1. Contrasting Pictures. 2. Political Changes. 
3. The Changing Economic Structure. 4. Christian 
Efforts toward Economic and Social Adjustment. 
III Tue Rurat Majority . 70 


1. “Farmers of Forty Centuries.” 2. Village Life. 
3. Agricultural Christianity. . 


TY Hsin CH AG THES NEW CIDE 5 os) einen eee 
1. Older Tides in China’s Heritage. 2. The Lit- 
erary Revolution. 3. The Student Movement. 
4, The Scientific Spirit. 5. Social Reconstruction. 
6. Christianity and the New Tide. 


Vi SSPrerpivaAn (QUESTS!) (4 iio eta ee ee) eae 
1. The Confucian Church. 2. Neo-Buddhism. 
3. Taoism. 4. The Hsiao Chiao Men or Smaller 
Religious Sects. 5. Hsin Ch’ao and Scientific Re- 
ligion. 6. Christianity and the Spiritual Quest. 


Vi. CHRISTIANITY, CREATIVE 0k) Coen win) cee ee 
1. Christian Achievement. 2. Facing the Present 
Situation. 3. The Church of Christ in China. 
4. Creative Cooperation. 5. China’s Christian Con- 
tribution to the World. 


Liv] 


Contents 


Appendices 


I A Reapinec List . 
II A CHRONOLOGICAL SCAFFOLD FOR CHINESE HIstTorY 


III Frnpincs or A CONFERENCE ON THE RELATION OF THE 
CyurcuH To INDUSTRIAL AND Economic ConpiTIONs, 
SHANGHAI, December 1-2, 1922 . 


IV StratisticaL TABLEs . } 
1. Area and Population i Chin d 
2. Christian Workers in China 
3. The Christian Church in China . 
4 


. Students in Christian Primary and Middle 
Schools Me ae A 


5. Degree of Shires Muration 


Index 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Dr. Cheng Ching-yi . . . . = Frontispiece 


FACING PAGE 


Rural China 

Cronies 

A New Buddhist ee 

In a Taoist Temple 

Peking University Students . 
National Christian Conference 


[v] 


8 


FOREWORD 


The problem of interracial relationships is the most per- 
plexing and most difficult of all the problems with which 
the human race is confronted today. This book is written 
in the faith that the solution of that problem is to be 
found only in a fearless application to practical affairs of 
the principles of love and righteousness taught and lived 
by Jesus Christ. To the world-wide Christian enterprise 
has been committed in a particular way the task of pre- 
senting the message of Jesus to men. If that enterprise 
is to be more rapidly and more adequately successful, it 
must become filled more than ever before with Jesus’ spirit 
of respect and love for men, a respect and love for nations 
as well as for individuals. “Whatsoever ye would that 
men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them” is 
a word to be applied to international as much as to per- 
sonal relationships. 

In relation to a people such as the Chinese, with a long 
cultural heritage of rich achievement, the Christian enter- 
prise should be conducted with respect and appreciation: 
respect for the unique and precious characteristics of the 
heritage, appreciation for the distinctive qualities of the 
Chinese temperament and point of view which the heritage 
has produced. The greater the respect and the deeper the 
appreciation, the more Christ-like will be the way of ap- 
proach, | 

It is the hope of the author that this book may contribute 
something to a clearer understanding of the Chinese point 
of view regarding some of the situations and movements 


[vi] 


Foreword 


that mark present conditions in China; that it may en- 
courage more sympathetic cooperation between Westerners 
and Chinese in the Christian task; and may help toward 
the recognition by Westerners of the primary place which 
Chinese churches and Chinese leaders must have in the 
future accomplishment of that task. A Christ-like Chris- 
tianity in China will bring inestimable iieihenasey to China, 
to the West, and to the world. 

The book has been written under the direction of a 
committee of the Missionary Education Movement. To 
the chairman of the Committee, Dr. T. H. P. Sailer, and 
to Mr. Franklin D. Cogswell, Educational Secretary of the 
Missionary Education Movement, the author is especially 
indebted for many suggestions drawn from a long experi- 
ence in the planning and teaching of mission study books. 
Friends like the Rev. Milton T. Stauffer, the Rev. Robert 
F, Fitch, and Professor Lewis Hodous, have willingly re- 
sponded to the call for help and have contributed im- 
portant suggestions and even paragraphs. Ideas, material, 
and criticisms have come from many others. To each and 
all the author acknowledges great indebtedness and offers 
sincere thanks. For the final arrangement of material and 
for the views set forth, the author alone is responsible. 

Special thanks should be given to Miss Julia Littlefield 
without whose efficient help the manuscript could not have 
been prepared. 


Bi @oihs 


New York City 
May 10, 1924 


[vii] 


Simply as an intellectual spectacle, a scene for 
study and surmise, for investigation and specula- 
tion, there is nothing in the world today—not even 
Europe in the throes of reconstruction—that equals 
China. History records no parallel. Can an old, 
vast, peculiar, exclusive, self-sufficing civilization 
be born again? Made over it must be or it can- 
not endure. Yet it must accomplish the making 
over in face of facts and forces profoundly alien 
to it, physically, politically, industrially, intellec- 
tually, spiritually. All of the forces are strange, 
unprecedented. . . . History may be ransacked to 
furnish a situation that so stirs interest, that keeps 
the spectator so wavering between hope and fear, 
that presents so baffling a face to every attempt to 


find a solution. 
—John Dewey in Asta, May, 1921 


| 
Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


“China as a nation is in a desperate case. Opium is 
being grown and sold freely in almost every section of 
the country. Brigandage is rife. Public life is terribly 
corrupt. Militarism flourishes. Western industrialism 
threatens the very foundation of social well-being.” This 
picture of China today is drawn by Henry T. Hodgkin, 
M.D., a man who has lived in China for many years, who 
is a devoted friend of the Chinese, and highly regarded by 
them. It is a dark picture. We may not want to see it; 
but if it is a true picture, nothing will be gained by re- 
fusing to face the facts which it preserits. But is there 
not relief from such darkness? 

May we not turn to the democratic movement and hope 
that through parliamentary methods improvement in po- 
litical conditions may be attained? As to that, hear the 
report of another observer, Mr. F. W. Stevens, of J. P. 
Morgan and Company, who spent two years in China as 
representative of the American bankers interested in the 
China Consortium. He says, “The so-called Central or 
Peking Government is impotent in more than half of the 
territory of China. The so-called Parliament, lately con- 
vened at Peking after several years’ eclipse, is not rep- 
resentative, is not respected, is openly charged with being 
governed by selfish and corrupt motives and is largely 
powerless for good.” 

And yet, in spite of their frank and accurate portrayal 


[1] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


of China’s desperate condition, neither Mr. Hodgkin nor 
Mr. Stevens is hopeless for the future. Most of those 
who know the history of China and the characteristics of 
her people will agree with these observers in their. hope- 
fulness. Upon what, then, is that hopefulness based? 


1. Basis of Optimism 


There are two major factors which give a real basis for 
such optimism. 

The first of these is the sound character of the Chinese 
people. “They are a good-natured people, a peaceable 
people, a temperate people, a law-abiding people, a people 
of wonderful patience and fortitude.” Although great 
masses are illiterate, they are intelligent to a degree and 
have often been named the most reasonable people in the 
world. Education has always been highly regarded. 
Their life for centuries has been marked by sturdy moral- 
ity in devotion to the high standards of the Confucian 
system. Their vitality as.a race is demonstrated in the 
long centuries of history during which their cultural life 
has passed through several cycles: splendid eras of cre- 
ative productivity in some of which China was the most 
cultivated nation in the world, making brilliant achieve- 
ments in philosophy, religion, statecraft, and the fine 
arts; and periods of less creative activity or of quies- 
cence; but these last have been in every case only the 
dormant condition preparatory to fresh bursts of fer- 
tility. The good qualities of the masses of the Chinese 
people inspire hope even in the face of the apparently 


[2] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


desperate situation of today. When we realize that 
twenty-four times in her history China has passed 
through the chaos and confusion incident to the transi- 
tion period between the overthrow of one dynasty and 
the firm establishment of the succeeding administration, 
and when we appreciate that these present decades are a 
period of similar transition, it is possible to reenforce our 
hopefulness for the future of the nation. 

The second encouraging factor lies in the Christian 
enterprise. Although at present the Christian community 
seems insignificant and negligible in comparison to the 
masses of China’s population, there are, nevertheless, 
abundant signs of a widespread influence. The tiny 
seedling at first transplanted from the West is taking 
such root in the nation’s life as to give promise of becom- 
ing within a short time thoroughly indigenous. 

The paragraph in which Dr. Hodgkin paints his dark 
picture of China’s present desperate case closes with 
these sentences: “Only a fearless application of the spirit 
of Christ and his revolutionary principles of love and 
social righteousness can save China. The Church holds 
the key. Its spirit is one of tremendous earnestness in 
regard to the application of Christianity to the common 
life.’ And our other witness to present conditions in 
China, Mr. Stevens, testifies to “the need-of moral re- 
generation which must precede any great political and 
industrial improvement.” He commends the Christian 
work in China and says, “In all China there is not a 
single organization on a scale of importance that aims at 
moral improvement or that is calculated to bring it about 


[3] 


Bae P aPC SSO Ua AMR Lr en ASS OND TUTE ORT ce 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 
SRS ANON Me Ooo aS OI eens 
that is not traceable in its origin to the Christian mis- 
sions.” So sweeping a claim as this would not be made 
by missionaries themselves. There are groups of Chinese 
not directly related to any Christian stimulus that are de- 
voted to moral and, especially, to social renewal. But 
practically all observers would agree to the primacy of 
the Christian movement in moral improvement. Non- 
Christian Chinese have also testified frequently to the 
need of China for the moral dynamic of Christianity. 
China continuing weak and helpless for the next hun- 
dred years will be an incentive to the ambitious greed 
of every imperialistic minded politician in Europe, Amer- 
ica, or Japan, and will be the occasion for international 
conflicts, due to such greedy rivalry. But a strong China, 
throwing off the “shame and darkness of moral defeat’ 
and rising through a revival of her moral and spiritual 
energies to a position of strength and honor in the family 
of nations, will not alone save herself. The old Chinese 
wisdom, reinvigorated and inspired by a spiritual dynamic 
derived from Jesus Christ and adapted by the use of the 
principles and methods of science to the modern world, 
will yet teach much to the Occident. 


2. What the Chinese Say 


As China enters this period of growing interchange of 
influence with other peoples, what are the attitudes of 
her forward-looking men and women toward the West 
and toward those forces representing its civilization which 
have wrought such changes in the life of their country ? 


[4] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


In the midst of the interplay of cultures that is becoming 
one of the most significant features of our rapidly shrink- 
ing world, it is important that we try with all the in- 
genuity we can muster to understand what such a great 
people as the Chinese are thinking about us. Not until 
we are on a basis of sympathetic understanding of their 
attitudes can we hope to discuss intelligently the momen- 
tous questions that must be settled in these few coming 
years if China is to be our partner in the world-wide 
enterprise of Christ. 

In a sincere effort to gain that understanding, let us 
try to get inside the mind of a cultured, intelligent, and 
patriotic Chinese for a time as he tells us what he feels 
about the West and the relations of his people with it. 
Let us think of this man not as the “inscrutable Oriental” 
or “enigma” of the romances and “movies” about China ; 
rather let us take him for what he is—a world-citizen 
along with us, one whose fellowship we can win, if we 
will, for the great common tasks that face all men of 
good-will everywhere. If this educated and traveled 
gentleman should undertake to be perfectly frank with 
us, he would speak somewhat as follows: 


“Those of us who have given many years to a study of 
the literature, philosophy, and history of China, cannot 
fail to be convinced of its greatness. We are justly proud 
of our past. Take, for instance, the China of the Tang 
dynasty. We may justly claim that it was matched by 
no contemporary state in the world. Great statesmen ad- 

gah A.D. For a table of the Chinese dynasties, see pp. 232- 


[5] 


se overehlr bill Sea hes ea 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 
RIN BU Shasta. Gel ng dn EASA Oe aa UR a hea 
ministered in peace and order an enormous empire with- 
out the help of modern means of communication. The 
fine arts flourished. Chinese poets wrote under the in- 
fluence of an inspiration that has made their work im- 
mortal, so that Westerners today are attracted to its vital 
beauty, as thirsty travelers to the refreshment of an ever- 
flowing mountain spring. The craftsmen of China pro- 
duced works that are largely sought today by the lovers 
of art in every nation. This must be acknowledged by all 
to be a great and glorious age in the history of mankind. 

“We who have studied know that China can present to 
the world philosophers of deep insight, social reformers 
who experimented with almost all the schemes for social 
improvement devised by men in any age, imperial-minded 
statesmen, public-spirited administrators, masters of edu- 
cation, and a long line of scholars devoted to almost every 
phase of intellectual activity. Is it any wonder that those 
of us who have given long and patient study to this rich 
inheritance, feel resentful at its comparative neglect by 
other nations and their quiet assumption that in every- 
thing of value the Western world must be superior ? 

“We cheerfully admit that the Western world also has 
a rich inheritance from the past, and that in particular it 
has made wonderful advances in scientific development. 
Ignorance of these things is not our fault, but is rather 
to be attributed to our geographical barriers of great 
mountains and deserts on the west and the vast expanse 
of ocean on the east, that made intercourse with the rest 
of the world exceedingly difficult. 

“Foreigners often hold up the Great Wall as typical of 


[6] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


the self-satisfied exclusiveness of us Chinese and our na- 
tive desire to have no relations with Western people or 
nations whom we suppose to be inferior to ourselves in 
all respects. Let me remind you that the Great Wall, 
which was begun before the Christian era, was originally 
meant to be a protection against the savage and barbaric 
tribes that pressed on China from the extensive steppes 
to the north and west. These tribes were closely related 
to the hordes which swept down time and again on 
Europe from those same steppes, causing each time they 
appeared a serious setback to the progress of civilization. 
Had Europe been in a position to erect such a wall along 
her eastern frontier, she would gladly have done so. The 
reenforcement of our natural mountain defences by this 
wall has enabled us to retard the invasions of these bar- 
barous people, so that our civilization has never been com- 
pletely swamped. Our population in the north has fre- 
quently been diluted by the intrusion of illiterate and un- 
cultured barbarians, but the spirit of Chinese culture was 
always open to assimilate and civilize the foreign elements 
which were introduced. We can mention with pride that 
the barbarians never reduced us to the condition which 
Europe suffered during the so-called Dark Ages. 

“The Great Wall, then, was a defense against barbarian 
intrusions and never a barrier to China’s relations with 
contemporary civilized people. Even a casual study of 
our history will show early contacts with the Roman Em- 
pire, with Persia, with the Greco-Hindu states of West- 
ern and Central Asia, with India itself, with the nations 
lying to the south of China, with the Arabs from Bagdad, 

[7] 


Peer CONN aM MSLO ED Saga SUC cnet Ui Aw Sr ES 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 

NE ACE OR RUNGR MD RCRA URE RI gllNosmeesent cca TS 
and even with far-off Zanzibar in Africa. Our great 
rulers encouraged intercourse with other nations in the 
days before European peoples arrived at our doors. 
During the Mongol and Ming dynasties Western traders 
and the Jesuit scientists, who were the earliest mission- 
aries of the Roman Catholic Church, were well received. 
It is only in the Manchu, or Ching dynasty, and even 
then not until after the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, that an official attitude of exclusiveness toward 
Europeans was adopted. We must remember that a gov- 
ernment does not always represent the feeling and prac- 
tise of the people, who may be forced to submit to it. We 
can at least claim that China has not been unfriendly 
toward foreign peoples except for a few centuries in 
most recent times, while there have been notable periods 
when we have been eager to know as much as possible of 
all the foreign peoples with whom we came into contact. 
The Great Wall does not mean that we are honelessly 
exclusive. 


“You must remember that every civilization has certain 
points upon which it lays special stress. For us the form 
or manner, the etiquette of human relations, is a matter 
of vital and moral importance. Open-minded travelers 
and residents among us unite in praising the manners of 
the Far East. Of’all the world, we, with the Japanese, 
have laid most stress on good form, and therefore we 
would be called by unprejudiced judges the most cour- 
teous people in the world. We have learned our courtesy 
from the race habits which Confucius established. You 


[3] 


RURAL CHINA 


A farmhouse in the North. 
The famous rice terraces of the West. 


c ‘euIyD) YON JO 
, 4199013 IOUIOD,, YJ—OSNOY vd} ISPITIA B }e OSIOATUN OY} Surssnosip puev suivA SuiddemMs S1UIVyf 


SHINOWD 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


Westerners are inclined to criticize us for an overem- 
phasis upon the superficial things in human relations, but 
at least you cannot deny that our modes of etiquette and 
habits of courtesy have given us something which enables 
us to meet with poise and equanimity almost every sort 
of experience in human contacts. 

“The first of your representatives to come to our shores 
were not selected on account of their polish and refine- 
ment. None but adventurous fortune seekers would un- 
dertake so long and difficult a journey. These men had 
for the most part little concern in the niceties and re- 
finements of manner, and it is not surprising that they 
impressed us as being rough and uncouth. To every 
nation, manners to which it is unaccustomed seem strange 
and inferior. We were not prepared to appreciate the 
aggressiveness and energy that marked most of your rep- 
resentatives. They in turn may have thought us dilatory 
and evasive. It was unfortunate that types of social habit 
so divergent should come into contact with each other 
with so little appreciation on either side of the need for 
understanding the best traits of the other. 

“These early ambassadors of the West were sent to get 
results. They were often exasperated at the treatment 
which seemed procrastinating and insincere. In conse- 
quence, they put on pressure and forced themselves upon 
us. While we can recognize today that some benefits 
have certainly come out of these contacts, we cannot 
forget the rudeness and force to which we were often 
subjected. 

“During the early decades of Western intercourse with 


[9] 


Pon EPEC FRE LGR DE NEN ead) UR a SOIT YT STV PnEsnOL OO a OP tec Sn STO Oe SON URRLSARTINA 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


China, the morals of Westerners were at fault as well 
as their manners. It is now recognized and admitted by 
historians that the Opium War of 1838-42, while occa- 
sioned by technical violations of the code of international 
law to which Great Britain was accustomed, at the same 
time, like the American Civil War, had back of it a great 
moral issue. As far as this issue was concerned, the 
Chinese stood on the right side. Granted that the illegal 
trade could be carried on only with the connivance of 
corrupt Chinese officials, it remains true that the Manchu 
Government and its councilors realized the terrible men- 
ace of opium to the national health and were determined 
to take active steps against the evil. No appreciation by 
us modern Chinese today of the stimulus which has come 
to China through her contact with the West can altogether 
erase the rankling memory of the Opium War. The 
island of Hong Kong, the treaty ports with their foreign 
concessions, most of the rights enjoyed by foreigners in- 
cluding those under which missionary work is carried on, 
are a constant reminder to us of the aggressive insistence 
of the West that China should accept the Western de- 
mands which, along with many good things, forced on 
us also the subtle poison of the drug. It cannot be ex- 
pected that a people will always weigh these wrongs 
judicially and make full allowance for all their own mis- 
takes. The fact remains that national prejudices, whether 
justified or not, when once created are hard to forget. 

“Under the circumstances it was not strange that we 
were prejudiced against Western entrance and found it 
hard to feel cordial toward its representatives as a whole. 


[10] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West. 


It did not take us long to see, however, that the West had 
enormous advantages in modern mechanical science. The 
superiority of many of your products—needles, cloth, 
leather goods, tools, and machinery—we soon recognized. 
Many of us were at once impressed with the belief that 
the strength of the West lay in these ‘things’ and that if 
China could only make use of them and adopt Western 
implements, she would be ready for modern life. This 
was the first stage of our attitude, an interest in Western 
goods and a willingness to have them introduced into 
China. Back of all this lay the hope that by the adoption 
of the mechanisms of the West we would be able to meet 
Western powers more nearly on a basis of equality. We 
attempted to do what we saw Japan doing in such a 
notable fashion: to use in self-defense the mechanical in- 
struments of the West, her engines both of commerce 
and of war. 


“Before this process could be carried very far in such 
an enormous and slow-moving mass of people as our 
Chinese race, the Japanese, copying the forceful methods 
of Europe, had set upon China. It may be that they de- 
liberately attacked us to show their ability to use their 
new military toys, or because they were attempting to 
divert the Japanese people from internal constitutional 
problems by the excitement and thrills of an imperialistic 
policy. At any rate, the people we had looked down upon 
as a ‘pigmy’ race brought us to a speedy and disastrous 
defeat. Here we learned our second lesson. Out of the 
_ defeat there came the realization that manufactured goods 


[ir] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


and the machinery which produced them were not the 
only things to be received from the West in order to make 
China strong enough to enter into association with modern 
powers as an equal. We now saw that the Japanese 
had not only taken over Western goods; they had also 
absorbed. Western education and educational methods in 
order to give themselves the mental training and the in- 
formation necessary to undertake themselves. the produc- 
tion of such goods. Following this method, we entered 
the second stage in our attitude toward the West, in 
which we sought to strengthen ourselves by adopting 
Western education. This new purpose won adherents 
rapidly. As early as 1898, only three years after the 
war, the attempt was made by the Emperor himself to 
discard the old educational system, with its civil service 
examinations dating from ancient times, and to replace 
it by making history, mathematics, and science the sub- 
jects in which candidates should be prepared. This first 
attempt at reform by imperial edict failed, but the move- 
ment in behalf of modern education soon regained and 
rapidly increased its momentum. The very Empress 
Dowager, whose coup d’état had ended the young Em- 
peror’s reforms, became herself an advocate of the new 
system. Thousands of our students hurried to Japan 
to study Western science. Various types of colleges, uni- 
versities, and technical schools were established by the 
Central Government, by the provinces, and in some cases 
by private individuals. It was expected that the training 
of men qualified in modern learning to meet the scientific 
demand would save China. 


[12] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


“Although this interest in education was general and 
the support of it considerable, it was not possible to carry 
out a real education of the people rapidly enough to avoid 
the catastrophe which ignorance and superstitious pa- 
triotism brought upon China in 1900. During the years 
following the war with Japan and parallel to China’s 
effort to save herself, there was carried on by the foreign 
powers a wild game of grab, in which each of the Euro- 
pean nations sought to preempt for itself important sec- 
tions of China’s territory for its own special, selfish ex- 
ploitation. These nations anticipated the early partition 
of China, and the promoters of Western commercial de- 
velopment wished to establish themselves in the most 
favorable positions before that event. The ignorant mass 
of the Chinese population had begun to hear of things 
which took place in 1895, when the fruits of Japan’s 
victory over China were seized by Russia with the sup- 
port of France and Germany. In 1897 the murder of 
two German missionaries in Shantung Province led to 
the siege of Kiaochow by the German Kaiser, accom- 
panied by bombastic utterances about the ‘yellow peril.’ 
These and similar aggressions aroused frenzied fury, 
which were stimulated by the incantations of the Boxer 
leaders. Many who were in the highest posts of au- 
thority in the Manchu court connived at the excesses 
of the Boxer uprising. Enthusiastic resistance to such 
aggressions on the part of any sovereign state in the West 
would be called patriotism. Unfortunately, the hatred 
of foreigners and all connected with them manifested 
itself in many acts of savagery. The forces of the whole 


[13] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


world united in putting down the Boxer movement, and 
China again had a taste of the effective militarism of the 


West. 


“This catastrophe marked the beginning of a new period, 
in which we realized that more was needed to modernize 
China than education, on however general a scale it 
could be conducted. The leaders who now came to the 
front began to work for reform in the administration of 
government. The age-old system of bureaucratic autoc- 
racy was attacked. China was seeking to copy from the 
West the principles and methods of democratic and con- 
stitutional government. This movement culminated in 
the proclamation of the Chinese Republic in 1912. But 
we realize that the establishment of a so-called republic 
and a nominally constitutional form of government has 
not resulted in making real the dream of a strong, united, 
modernized China, which was the inspiration of our 
leaders. More and more we are being forced to appre- 
ciate the truth that moral and intellectual renovation 
must precede political and social reform. We are begin- 
ning to feel that only through an appreciation of the 
philosophy or faith that lies back of Western inventions, 
Western learning, and Western politics can we win from 
the West the secret of its power. To the winning of 
that secret our leaders of the present generation are 
devoted. 

“It must be recognized, of course, that at the begin- 
ning of each of these stages which I have mentioned only 
a small group of our forward-looking leaders recognized 


[14] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


the need to learn anything from the West. In addition 
to the official and anti-foreign attitude of the Manchu 
Government, there was naturally considerable reluctance 
on the part of the mass of the people, founded on easily 
understood prejudices, and at times organized opposition. 
All students of history should understand how easily hos- 
tility is aroused in one nation by dealings on the part of 
others which offend its interests or pride. No one whe 
understands the bitterness surviving over many years 
between nations, such as the United States and England, 
England and France, France and Germany, as a result of 
clashes in the past can fail to realize how natural it is for 
the Chinese to recall the most unattractive features of 
Western manners, even while they admit the incidental 
benefits from Western contacts. 


“Of course, you must understand that different groups 
of our people have had very different experiences with 
foreigners and may feel quite differently toward them. 
We have many communities which have never yet seen 
any foreign person, but there are now few in which for- 
eign goods are not known and used. These are adver- 
tised throughout inland China. Kerosene, for instance, is 
distributed practically everywhere within our provinces 
and outlying territories. It has won its way because it 
gives better and cheaper light at less cost than our native 
vegetable oils. Western cotton cloth, thread, tobacco, 
and many other articles have proved their superiority to 
our native product and may be found almost everywhere, 
a witness to the capacity of the West to produce useful 


[15] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


articles at low cost. Our country folk are not only will- 
ing, but eager to use what is most useful and least ex- 
pensive. There is certainly a general appreciation of 
Western efficiency. Our country people are generally in- 
clined to be friendly, so that in spite of the ignorance and 
superstition which we must admit still prevails, they are 
ready to welcome reasonable advances from the West and 
are not inclined to hostility unless there is provocation. 

“In spite of the prevailing illiteracy, there is in these 
days some knowledge of the great powers of the world 
even in inland districts, though the impressions are more 
or less distorted reflections of those held by better- 
informed communities and by our progressive leaders. 
Throughout considerable areas of inland China flood 
or famine relief has often been given in recent years. 
The people know that this relief of China’s suffering 
was made possible by generous contributions from the 
West. In almost all cases it has been necessary to make 
use of the staff of Christian mission stations for admin- 
istering the relief offered. This relief has added to the 
reputation of Western peoples generally for kindly help- 
fulness, and has given wider scope to the willing service 
with which your mission stations are credited. It is safe 
to say that most rural regions in China are inclined to 
meet the foreign stranger with curious friendliness if 
he approaches them in a kindly and courteous way. A 
polite form of address, a friendly smile, with perhaps 
the quotation of a Chinese proverb, will seldom fail to 
win a friendly response. 

“In recent years our leaders have made definite efforts 


[16] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


to give information to all our people about China’s con- 
dition in the world, her resources and possibilities, what 
democracy requires of her citizens, and the story of 
Western aggression toward China. The surprising suc- 
cess of the boycott against Japanese goods, which the 
Student Movement of 1919 organized throughout China, 
is an illustration of what may be expected when unfair- 
ness or aggression on the part of other nations in political 
or commercial relations is generally understood, and 
when their political relationships are represented or mis- 
represented as trickery in support of selfish gains. 
“Our rural folk have been ready to follow the lead 
of our young reformers who have organized lecture bands 
to go through the countryside, warning China against 
the encroachments of rival nations. The fanaticism of 
the Boxer outbreak can be explained as that panic of 
‘fear which came over the Chinese when they felt that 
one strategic port after another was being seized by 
European powers and one after another of their coun- 
try’s wealthy regions designated as the ‘sphere of in- 
fluence’ of some political group of the West. If foreign 
powers are reasonable in their approach to China and 
restrained in their claims, there need be no fear of a 
similar outbreak. Even under present conditions when, 
as the result of poor harvests and unpaid soldiers, bandits 
and brigands appear, through many parts of China for- 
eign missionaries and business men still travel without 
risk. But we must warn the West to be prepared for 
the worst if, individually or as nations, their conduct 
forces the Chinese to change their peaceful ways and to 


[17] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


arm themselves in self-defense against unrighteous 
aggressions. 


“Our merchant class have a much greater understand- 
ing of the West than the rural communities could pos- 
sibly have. They have been in contact with the West 
for over a century, and the profits made from the han- 
dling of foreign goods incline them to a favorable atti- 
tude toward their Western business connections. The 
rapid development of Chinese business companies for 
both export and import trade and the percentage of that 
trade already in the hands of the Chinese prove the suc- 
cess they have won in rivalry with Western firms. There 
seems to be no distinct hostility, however, toward the 
Westerner as such, except where he becomes a direct 
or indirect agent for his government, or in cases where 
his interest becomes the occasion for an invasion of” 
Chinese rights. 

“You should note carefully the willingness of our 
merchant class to sacrifice their own profits when pa- 
triotism demands a protest against unrighteous treatment 
by foreign powers. We Chinese are masters in the use 
of the boycott. This method of protest has already 
been used with notable success against America and 
against Japan, and has been threatened against other 
nations. The China’trade of any foreign nation will 
be in danger whenever that nation pursues policies that 
seem derogatory to the honor of China, an infringement 
of her sovereign rights, an insult to her people, or a 
threat directed against her physical or moral well-being. 


[18] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


“Our literary men naturally have great pride in the 
achievements of our race. Especially we deprecate the 
insistence of Westerners on the completeness of mere 
Western culture. We believe that we have something 
of worth to contribute to the civilization of the world. 
We feel that in general we have a much clearer under- 
standing of Western culture and a better insight into 
its characteristic discoveries than Western scholars have 
of Eastern history or philosophy, of religious literature, 
art, or statecraft. 

“We are accused of prejudice and conservatism, but 
it seems to us that the Western scholar is often more 
firm in his prejudice for Western ideas and in his re- 
fusal to look beyond the limits of its history than scholars 
of the Orient in their adherence to national bias. Per- 
haps the greatest intellectual sin is unteachableness, and 
this our leading scholars have now overcome better than 
most Westerners. Can you find, for example, any ex- 
tensive provision in the curricula of your colleges and 
universities for studies connected with the culture of 
Eastern peoples? Do you not consider a man educated, 
although his knowledge is entirely limited to subjects 
relating to the stream of Western culture? Ignorance 
of the history, philosophy, and art of the Asiatic peoples 
is no disgrace to a Westerner. We feel that the scholars 
of all nations should approach each other in a spirit of 
mutual desire to learn and without airs of superiority 
or condescension. 

“One class you of the West should take into special 
account. I refer to the group of young reformers, both 


[19] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


those far-sighted earlier leaders who sought to direct their 
country into paths of progressive modern civilization 
and the more revolutionary leaders of today who have 
undertaken to overthrow the political administration, so- 
cial organization, and educational habits that formed the 
system of China for so many centuries. Note, in the 
first place, that these young men are well informed in 
almost everything that relates to the West. Many of 
them are ‘returned students,’ men who have spent years 
of study in the universities of Japan, America, or Europe 
in order to learn at first hand the methods of scientific 
study and to gain the knowledge in the varied fields 
of research that have given the West its advantage 
during the last century. These men know thoroughly 
the entire history of Western relations with China, they 
are all of them ardent patriots, they are eager for power 
to develop rapidly throughout wider areas of China a 
clear and vigorous national consciousness. Most of them 
have accepted democratic views regarding social and 
political organization, and are devoted to the task of 
studying the tendencies toward democratic organization 
which are native and indigenous to China—such tenden- 
cies, for example, as are seen in the control of family 
and clan, in the conduct of public affairs of rural com- 
munities, or in the gild system for merchants, artisans, 
and the general production of goods. They desire to 
bring these tendencies into closer relation with the urge 
toward democracy which they feel in Western life and 
indeed in all parts of the world today. 

“Varied attitudes are to be found in this group with 


[20] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


relation to spiritual and religious teachings. A large 
number are inclined to adopt the agnostic position which 
they feel many Western scientists hold. But some among 
them—with minds as brilliant and as scientific in attitude 
as those of any of the educated classes—are devoted to 
religion and to Christianity. The whole group is cer- 
tainly actuated by devotion to the public welfare and 
social reconstruction. 

“However much this circle of intellectual and social re- 
formers is willing to recognize its indebtedness to the 
West, as the teacher who has helped them into an en- 
riched life and into fascinating adventures after new 
truths, they are assuredly no uncritical or sentimental 
admirers of the West. Indeed, one result of the mastery 
of Western methods of study, together with an intimate 
knowledge of principles and practise that underlie West- 
ern social life and diplomacy, has been a tendency to 
examine and criticize the history of Western relations 
with China in the light of the moral standards which 
the West claims to hold. These men are publishing the 
results of their studies, in the English language, in vol- 
umes which give an intimate glimpse of the way in 
which the Westerner is regarded by the new generation 
in China. These volumes are not one-sided propaganda. 
They look at things, however, from a Chinese point of 
view and fail to find the justification which many West- 
ern writers have claimed for acts of aggression. No 
one can read the interpretation of this record from the 
Chinese point of view without realizing keenly the domi- 
nant acquisitive tendencies of Western nations. Official 


[21] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


professions of a friendly interest and a desire to support 
China against dangerous enemies are shown in many 
cases to have been only a disguise for the grabbing of 
concessions, rights, and spheres of influence. When the 
Japanese began to appear in the story, the acquisitive 
tendencies are magnified and greatly strengthened. Can 
you name an item in the recent aggressive policy of 
Japan toward China that does not follow a precedent 
set by one or another of the ‘great’ Western powers? 
She could claim, as they could not, the necessity of 
self-defense as the basis for her ‘right’ to preserve a 
dominant influence on the continent of Asia, but we can- 
not fail to note that Japan simply copied methods which 
she had learned from Western powers. 

“You Americans take satisfaction in the fact that 
your conduct toward China was less marked by aggres- 
sive selfishness. The inauguration of the open-door pol- 
icy is certainly to your credit; but it seems to us ‘that 
you have never been sufficiently convinced of the moral 
strength of the position which your great statesman, 
John Hay, took toward Far Eastern problems to give 
it firm and vigorous support. Our writers feel justified 
in pointing out the fact that American policy, even re- 
garding the open door, has mainly considered its own 
interest rather than China’s moral rights. 

“After the establishment of the Republic in 1912, a 
period of international cooperation and control takes 
the place of the struggle for concessions of the preceding 
decade. Even here we feel that the cooperation of the 
great powers is primarily for their own advantage rather 


[22] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


than for the welfare of China. Our leaders who estab- 
lished the Republic expected support in democratic gov- 
ernment from the supposedly more democratic powers of 
the West. Instead of that, those powers gave aid to the 
strong conservative monarchist, Yuan Shih-kai. This 
seemed to us inconsistent. 

“Some of these statements may seem to you hyper- 
critical, but they represent the attitude of our most in- 
telligent young leaders. Especially to be noted is the 
increasing emphasis they are giving to China’s need of 
developing her military strength. The love of peace is 
one of the great characteristics of the Chinese people, 
but i the minds of many Chinese today there is a con- 
viction that the methods of conference and arbitration 
are failing and that there is little hope for China in an 
appeal to the moral idealism of the West. We see 
Japan given a place of equality and honor in the council 
of the great powers of the world. We know that she 
has won this position because she adopted Western 
methods for her army and navy and reformed both along 
the lines of European efficiency. Japan is respected to- 
day because she is strong and well armed. But China’s 
tival claims are unheard, her interests are disregarded 
whenever consideration of them would prejudice those 
of some more powerful state. Surely you can under- 
stand and sympathize with the feeling of our delegates 
at Paris in 1919 and at Washington in 1921, who felt 
that the only resource left for their nation was to deny 
its traditional reasonableness and love of peace and de- 
liberately train itself in the ways of militarism. 


[23] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


“But surely, you will say, however just any of this 
prejudice may be against Western political force, there 
can be nothing but cordial appreciation of missionary 
effort which has been conducted with such genuine de- 
votion for the good of the Chinese people. Here you 
must remember how insidious and effective prejudices 
are. Is your nation always appreciative of the conscien- 
tious efforts of other peoples? We may acknowledge 
all we owe to Christian missions, and yet it is hard for 
many of us to dissociate them from the attitude that 
has been aroused toward the West in general. We feel 
that the Christian Church in America has not the deep 
and unselfish interest in China which its professions 
would lead us to expect. We find members of your 
churches who come to China not always considerate of 
our interests. There are features even of your mission- 
ary administration which seem to indicate an idea of 
superiority on your part and of failure to appreciate our 
best achievements. Frankly, with all its good intentions, 
Christianity approaches China with a certain amount of 
handicap. I have spoken to you with the utmost free- 
dom because I believe you honestly desire to remove any 
such handicap in your dealings with the Chinese.” 


3. Removing Un-Christlike Attitudes 


Is there not a very direct challenge to Christianity 
in the Chinese attitudes we have observed? The writer 
of this book and the majority of his readers agree in 
the belief that the spirit of Christ alone can bring to 


[24] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


China power for individual moral renewal and creative 
energy for social transformation. With this conviction, 
the immediate, all-important, and pressing problem which 
faces the Christian enterprise in China is how to remove 
the obstacles which hinder the progress of the movement 
in order that the mass of Chinese people may be won 
as rapidly as possible to an acceptance of the principles 
which Jesus Christ taught, and for which he lived and 
worked and died. The future of China depends upon 
the outcome of a race to the finish between chaos and 
the real Christ spirit. There is a chance to win China 
for true Christianity. Can Christian churches meet the 
challenge? 

It is the purpose of this book to consider such a chal- 
lenge, to examine a few of the important facts in the 
present situation in China in relation to which Christian 
enterprise must be directed. The present opportunity 
cannot be of long duration. For the sake of China and 
for the sake of the world it is necessary to remove every 
hindrance to Christian effort and to increase immediately 
the effective energy of the entire Christian campaign. 

Christianity should bring only her good gifts of free- 
dom, personal worth, equality of men, liberation of body 
and spirit, joy and salvation, the vital energy of the 
“abundant life” in Christ. Against these there is no 
law and no opposition. For all that is Christlike China 
has an eager welcome. 

Perhaps some may feel that a study involving critical 
discussion of Christian aims and methods is the primary 
concern of those who determine mission policies,—the 


[25] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


administrative officers of missionary societies in China 
and the mission boards at the home base,—and that it 
is not therefore a proper study for the general church 
public. The urgency of the need in China justifies the 
attempt. Only as the entire Christian constituency of 
the countries supporting the missionary task is taken 
frankly into the confidence of those who are responsible 
for missionary policies can these problems be solved. 
We must face the situation in the field together, carefully 
scrutinizing missionary aims and methods. We must 
revise those that are wrong or weak, reenforcing those 
that have spiritual creativity, and add those that are 
needed for the future, if by any means China 1s to be 
won to Christ before the decay of her old moral and 
social controls is complete and the spread of Western 
jndustrialism has destroyed her. The churches need to 
understand the attitudes to be adopted toward the modern 
Chinese, both Christian and non-Christian. To prepare 
for that tomorrow which will be upon us all too soon, 
it is essential that there be full understanding of the 
direction which Chinese intellectual life is already taking, 
and an appreciation of the place which Chinese leader- 
ship must have, not only in China’s own political and 
social concerns, but in the Christian undertaking as well. 


We have considered in this chapter the fundamental 


matter of the attitude that young Chinese leaders of 
today hold toward the West and toward the Christian 
enterprise ; for convenience in our discussion each of the 
following five chapters will consider one of the principal 


factors that the Christian forces must take into account, 


[26] 


Chinese Attitudes Toward the West 


with the problems of Christian work which rise out of 
consideration of each one of them. ‘These factors are: 

(1) The political, economic, and social conditions 
which determine the immediate environment of the Chi- 
nese people in the important coast cities of China and 
in those inland centers where the transforming influence 
of contacts with the West has been felt for a consider- 
able time. 

(2) The great mass of agricultural folk, forming the 
bulk of China’s millions, who still live a simple lite, 
dominated for the most part by old traditions and super- 
stitions, even when there is some doubt regarding the 
correctness of habitual allegiance to the old standards. 
How best may we bring the liberalizing, energizing 
Christian message to these, who do not yet realize the 
inevitable result of the unequal contest between igno- 
rance and science, between traditional authority and the 
new spirit of inquiry? 

(3) The renaissance of intellectual life which is sweep- 
ing through the schools and universities of China today 
under the guidance of brilliant young men and women 
who are recovering for China the creative capacity which 
has marked her periods of finest bloom. 

(4) The religious movements which are seen in the 
signs of freshening life within the old faiths——Contu- 
cianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and the smaller religious 
groups—and in the yearning quest for spiritual power. 
How is Christ related to China’s own spiritual prophets? 

(5) The indigenous Christian church of China—the 
tiny lump of leaven in the great mass of her population; 


[27] 


OPA Ae PAO Ce a MINAS RODS MOO OOS cee EN Seen REINS SSS tar 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 

FEELERS NENA ONS en A ERO MS. Fc SS 
that little group to which is committed the stupendous 
task of inspiring, reinvigorating, and saving the whole 
people. 


If we gain some understanding of these factors and 
‘catch the vision of what a Christian China will mean 
for the world, we shall see that to our fellow Christians 
in China is committed one of the greatest tasks in 
Christian adventure that any people in any century has 
been privileged to attempt. We shall be eager to become 
fellow workers with them, giving all the assistance in 
personnel and in funds they may ask for. We shall be- 
come ardent intercessors on their behalf, praying that 
they may grow in grace and in power to control and guide 
their own Church. Only a Chinese Christian Church can 
save China. Under divine guidance a Chinese Christian 
Church may also bring to the Church Universal new 
glimpses of the character of God and fresher and deeper 
understandings of the teaching and person of Christ. 

“What can measure the possible influence on Christian- 
ity in other lands of a truly Christlike Christianity in 
China ?” 


[28] 


ee ee ee 
a. eS aon 
ae = —“— 


II 
The Changing Environment 


For at least twenty or thirty years Americans have 
been told about the “Awakening” or “Opening of China.” 
Probably the average American feels that the process 
of arousing this ancient people has been unduly ex- 
tended; either the “Chinese giant” must have been des- 
perately sleepy or the process used to awaken him nota- 
bly faulty. Those who know China, however, see that 
changes have been coming so rapidly that it is difficult 
for any observer to keep track of them. Westerners can 
better appreciate the rapidity with which the environ- 
ment of Chinese life is being transformed if they realize 
that the process of modernization, which in the case 
of Europe and America has occupied the four centuries 
between the discoveries of Columbus and the present 
time, is being crowded into as many decades for China. 
If we consider, in addition, the enormous mass of the 
vast population of China and integrate this factor with 
the rapidity of the changes, it is evident that the mo- 
mentum which may be calculated for the whole process 
represents a human energy greater than any single force 
that has yet appeared in human history. 

An impression of the striking changes that have taken 
place can be most vividly presented in a few contrasting 
pictures taken from my own experience. Brought up as 
a boy in a country district in western Shantung, I was 
familiar with the conditions of the life of the rural folk 


[29] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


before they had been seriously affected by Western influ- 
ences. Almost every year we visited Tientsin and 
Peking. Let me present pictures of Tientsin and Peking 
as I remember them in 1897, and as I saw them on my 
return eleven years later. 


1. Contrasting Pictures 


The Chinese city of Tientsin had been a walled town 
lying some miles northwest of the French Concession, 
which practically all foreigners proceeded to reach by 
traveling over the famous “Taku Road,” a rough dirt 
highway flanked on either side by evil smelling ponds 
of stagnant water and refuse that filled the holes from 
which the earth had been taken for making brick and 
other building purposes. Within the city, one passed 
through narrow streets where the odors of decaying 
refuse from dump heaps and open sewers beside the 
road mingled with the fragrance of frying food irom 
the multitudinous food-shops, the scent of southern fruits 
and spices, the odors of expensive teas and of other 
perfumed luxuries that filled the great shops. This ride 
through Tientsin streets from the French Concession 


to a point on the Grand Canal where the family em-: 


barked for the river journey to an inland station was 
always one of the’ most fascinating adventures of my 
boyhood. Throughout the city there was no suggestion 
of a building in the foreign type of architecture. One 
saw only the environment of pure, unadulterated Chinese 
edie: 

[30] 


ee 


—_— Se oe 


ee 


The Changing Environment 


In 1908 on the day after my return to Tientsin I 
drove from the old American Board Compound in the 
French Concession, with its foreignized bungalows famil- 
iar to my boyhood, to Pei Yang University just north 
of the suburb village of Haiku. For the entire distance 
we traveled over a well-made macadam road which passed 
through the Japanese Concession and skirted the Chinese 
city on its east side on the great “East Wall Avenue.” 
The city walls had been torn down after 1900, and 
their site transformed into a fine macadamized avenue 
that made the circuit of the city. Over it ran tram- 
cars. 

Passing the city, we went on through the northern sub- 
urb. It was only at this point that I found familiar 
landmarks. The old bridge of boats still carried the 
traffic across the Grand Canal, opening occasionally when 
some fleet of junks from the south desired passage. The 
river smells, the yelling of the crews, the crowded streets 
of the northern suburb,—crowded still in spite of the 
macadam,—all were a part of the old experience and 
roused the delights of recall. But the road led one 
past the “tumult and the shouting” to a broad boulevard 
which ended at the fine campus of the Pei Yang Uni- 
versity. Here a chum of the old days, now head of the 
Engineering Department, was building a great “Main 
Hall” with provision for classrooms and for excellent 
laboratories. 

This was the new China—macadam roads, tram-cars, 
the conveniences of the telephone, Westernized buildings 
adapted to scientific educational use, planned, built, 


[31] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


owned, and administered by the Chinese. And when I 
drove through other parts of the city, the same impres- 
sion was intensified. In Hopei—north of the river sec- 
tion—the Viceroy of the province, Yuan Shih-kai, had 
laid out a modernized Chinese city, a fine piece of city 
planning, opening up what had been a waste district to 
modern development under complete Chinese control. 
The provincial Assembly Hall stood in a park, with a 
series of modern buildings for both exposition and 
recreational purposes. The main avenue led from the 
Viceroy’s residence and offices to the Central Tientsin 
station of the Peking-Moukden Railway. Here were the 
outlines of a fine modern city. 

- In the old days I had ridden to Peking many times 
on donkeyback, over a dusty road along the wall of the 
Northern city, to pass through the great Hatamen with 
its imposing arch and gate tower. A narrow elevated 
causeway carried the traffic past the dump holes and 
cesspools. Picturesque booths of many sorts of pedlers 
lined the roadway and filled the wide space between the 
stores on either side. This was originally one of the 
broad thoroughfares running from the main gateways of 
the city as laid out by Kublai Khan when he established 
his capital at Kambalac. My journey’s end brought me 
to the American Board Mission Compound at Teng Shih- 
Kou—Lamp Market Avenue. 

On the return trip in 1908 I rode by train in a few 
hours from Tientsin to Peking and passed in a railroad 
carriage through the wall of the Southern city, riding 
under the wall of the Northern city over the exact route 


[32] 


The Changing Environment 


taken so many times on donkeyback, through the semi- 
lune which guarded the Hatamen, to detrain at the really 
fine railroad station inside the Chien Men, the great 
“Front Gate” of the city, and to go on from there over 
broad macadamized avenues to the old Lamp Market 
site. The broad thoroughfares of the Mongol founder 
had been restored, the refuse and the pedlers had dis- 
appeared, and uniformed policemen directed the flow of 
traffic either way. Along the streets there arose now 
and then between the old style shops with fronts of gilt 
and vermilion, modern stores of two or three stories. 
It was all new, and yet it was all Chinese. 

When I left China in 1897, a few progressive Chinese 
leaders were trying to bring home to the people the 
lessons to be learned from the defeat by Japan in 1894. 
During the eleven years of my absence, China had re- 
ceived the additional shock of the Boxer movement and 
its suppression and of the Russo-Japanese War. Forced 
into far more intimate relations with the West than she 
had ever experienced before, the Chinese generally had 
come to see the necessity for modernizing changes in their 
life, and the progress had gone on apace. Throughout 
the coastal regions the people generally were eager to 
make use of the advantages of Western science and in- 
vention and were ready to establish schools, colleges, 
and universities in which knowledge of the modern world 
could be gained. Thousands of keen-minded students 
were studying in Japan, and the flow of students to 
America and Europe had begun. Of all foreigners the 
Japanese were the most sought after as teachers. This 


[33] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


was because they were themselves Asiatics. Their writ- 
ten symbols were the same as the Chinese, their language 
easier to learn than any Western speech, and their prog- 
ress in Westernized and modernized ways notable ex- 
amples of what might be accomplished. 

To be sure, the majority of the Chinese in inland dis- 
tricts and on farms were living in the old way. The 


people, however liberal and progressive in their ideas. 


and ideals, were still at heart thoroughly Chinese, but 
it was plain that the environment of their life was be- 
ing changed. The political, economic, and social con- 
ditions were being transformed. If we are to under- 
stand the China of today, we must consider in detail 
this changing environment. 

One is reminded of a transformation scene in Tann- 
héuser or Parsifal. While the hero continues his 
speech and his action, the entire background is changed. 
There is no convulsion; but by degrees, almost imper- 
ceptible at first, the change is effected until the hero 
finds himself in surroundings entirely different from 
those in which his action began. Just so, the Chinese, 
during those eleven years, and even more so in the 
past fifteen, have been carrying on their ways of life 
in relation to conditions that have been steadily modify- 
ing. Curiously enough, the human actors have been, 
to a large extent, the general agents in the process of 
transformation. It will be easier to understand and 
appreciate the twofold change—the inner intellectual and 
spiritual and the outer environmental—if we first con- 
sider them apart from each other. 


[34] 


The Changing Environment 


2. Political Changes 


Americans, like other Westerners, are so distinctly 
politically minded that they seem to be more interested 
in the political changes in China than in any other phase 
of Chinese life today. Capacity in administration and 
organization, especially along political lines, marks all 
Western peoples, and it is difficult for any of them to 
understand a social life in which political organization 
is not the all-important thing. For this reason every 
political change in China is very fully written up by the 
Western journalists in China. This is especially true 
where sensational features can be played up. 

The names of rival political leaders—Chang Tso-lin, 
Tuchun of Manchuria; Wu Pei-fu, progressive militarist 
of North China; Ts’ao Kun, President of the Chinese 
Republic, newly elected by purchased votes; Sun Yat-sen, 
revolutionary hero and idealist ; Wang Chung-hui, China’s 
judge on the International Court—frequently appear in 
our newspapers and magazines. Biographical sketches 
are read eagerly. Every realignment of political par- 
ties in China is heralded abroad throughout the West- 
ern world. And news of prospective clashes between 
the leaders, or of general revolutionary movements, are 
eagerly anticipated. | 

China’s ambassadors abroad, often Western-trained 
men with a modern outlook—in particular such leaders 
as Wellington Koo at London and Paris, Alfred Sze at 
Washington, Yen Wei-ching (W. W. Yen), Ex-Minister 
of Foreign Affairs in Peking—have made a marked im- 


[35] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


pression upon Westerners. There is general surprise 
that men with the capacity of those named should not 
long ago have brought China to that state of orderly 
political organization which the West is so eager to see 
established in China. As a matter of fact, this interest 
in political leaders and political conditions is an evidence 
of the characteristic political interests of Western people. 
It does not represent eagerness to study the fundamental 
facts of China’s modern life; still less does it indicate 
an understanding of the conditions which underlie those 
facts. Probably most Westerners want an orderly China, 
not so much for the advancement of the public good of 
the Chinese people, as for the sake of the advantage 
which more stable conditions would give to Western 
trade. 

No “old China hand” would claim any complete un- 
derstanding of the present political situation in China, 
and not a single one would venture to prophesy the 
changes to be expected within the next few months or 
years. If this is so, what chance is there for the average 
Western reader of the news from China to appreciate 
conditions there? Like most foreigners in China, and 
particularly like every young Chinese, I am interested 
in the steady development of China towards a stable 
and well-developed, orderly and peaceful life in the 
modern world. But I am less interested in political 
conditions in China than in the other phases of Chinese 
life. However, since Americans cannot give up their 
characteristic habits, some attempt should be made to 
present an impression of the general tendencies. 


[36] 


The Changing Environment 


Two major influences are at work: 

(1) Foreign interference. No Western power has 
been willing or able to allow the Chinese people to work 
out for themselves either their own revolution or their 
own political development through modern constitutional 
forms of government. Even the least aggressively selfish 
of Western powers has been inclined to put its spoon 
into the broth that is brewing in China in the hope of 
securing more or less of special privileges for its own 
interests. Taken together, the Western powers have 
been more interested in a stabilized and an orderly China 
because of the advantages to them in carrying on trade 
and in developing concessions under such conditions, 
than in allowing the Chinese people time for quiet nat- 
ural adjustment to new conditions and for essential self- 
development. Charges can be laid against every one 
of the Western powers and against Japan for interfering 
in China’s internal affairs by urging some particular 
policy upon the Central Government; or by supporting 
some particular leader who gave promise of securing 
wide control in China; or by selling arms to revolution- 
ary groups; or by arranging with corrupt officials for 
loans that are a mortgage on the nation’s resources. 

It is impossible to estimate how much of the political 
confusion and anarchy in China today is due directly 
to foreign interference, open and secret, and how much 
is due to causes of an indigenous character and of Chi- 
nese origin only. Practically all of China’s friends agree 
that her development would be far better assured if the 
Western powers and Japan could agree among them- 


[37] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


selves upon a complete “hands-off” policy, and could 
allow her full freedom to work out her own salvation 
along lines of political organization true to her own 
traditional and native genius. Lao-tzu’s ideal “Develop- 
ment without Domination” has received no support from 
foreign governments. | 
(2) Personal rivalries. The confusion and conflict 
which seem so characteristic of Chinese political life 
find their root in most cases in personal rivalries between 
the more powerful groups and leaders rather than in any 
essential differences based on principles. These rivalries 


give to the transient visitor and superficial observer an 


appearance of chaos. But the long-time, friendly resi- 
dent of China knows that the life of the people really 
goes on steadily and without great confusion in spite of 
surface appearances to the contrary; he knows, too, that 
the people, north and south, east and west, are funda- 
mentally united; and that along. commercial, educational, 
and social lines, much constructive progress is being 
made. 

While regretting the extent to which partizanship and 
personal rivalries are manifest, such an observer is will- 
ing to appreciate the lessons of history and to recognize 
that confusion and anarchy are essential to development. 
He can refer to the history of several Western peoples to 
support his contention. Americans, in particular, should 
recall the many years of slow groping through which our 
states passed before the authority of the federal govern- 
ment was firmly established. 

Do not our best historians picture conditions in the 


[38] 


‘ 
ee a 


; 
: 
(i 


The Changing Environment 


early years of the life of the American Republic sur- 
prisingly similar to those existing in China to-day? Can 
we claim a real political union in America before the 
difficulties of the reconstruction period after the Civil 
War had been ended? Can any of us deny that without 
such a period, which must have seemed one of anarchy 
to the European observer, our people, North and South, 
could not have worked out together solutions of their 
problems that have led to the solid and firm United 
States of these days? Would we have allowed any other 
nation in either hemisphere to determine according to 
its knowledge and interests, and for its own advantage, 
the time when the period of anarchy and conflict for 
America ought to have an end? The present rivalries 
between military tuchuns in China may be illustrated 
for Americans by the squabbles between political “bosses” 
in either of our political parties. Confusion and anarchy 
may not be comfortable for the people that must pass 
through the process, but are they not, nevertheless, an 
essential part of a vital life process? 

China must work out her political salvation alone. No 
one can help her from without by any sort of direct 
influence or suggestion. The new political structure must 
be a real growth from within. But the friends of China 
can offer much help that will have indirect but sig- 
nificant bearing on the political situation. They can 
support every effort to reduce the enormous percentage 
of illiteracy and to develop a more intelligent public 
opinion. They can encourage the spirit of brotherhood 
and of social service in her youth. Some of the most 


[39] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


useful public leaders of today have been educated in 
missionary institutions. 

Carefully guarding against any direct interference in 
political matters, the friend of China can give essential 
help by supporting with friendliness and tact every move- 
ment toward constructive progress in democratic and 
social improvement." 


3. The Changing Economic Structure 


Most foreigners accept the traditional view of a China 
opposed to innovation and change, reluctantly accepting 
the products of Western mechanical inventions, and only 
gradually appreciating the advantages which the quality 
and convenience of these articles furnish. It is un- 
doubtedly true that ignorance and superstition were fac- 
tors in Chinese life delaying the process of Westerniza- 
tion at various points. | 

Changes in the economic environment of the Chinese 
people during the last few decades have been of a most 
varied character, and have come with astonishing rapidity. 
For means of communication railroads have been built, 
roads have been improved, rivers have been straightened. 
The products of scientific inventions in vehicles, ma- 
chinery, and electric devices have been introduced; the 
telegraph and telephone are now a necessary part of 


1 For the complete story of China’s political life since the estab- 


lishment of the Republic, see such books as Hodgkin, China in 


the Family of Nations, Chapter V; Cheng, Modern China—A 
Political Study, Part I; Simpson (Putnam Weale), The Fight 
for the Flowery Republic. 

[40] 


~s . 
EE ee ee 


_ The Changing Environment 


the life of every large city in China. In agriculture, 
in mines, and in shipbuilding and foreign trade there 
have been amazing developments. Within recent years 
very much of the development has been in the hands 
of Chinese. These changes have been not only “intro- 
duced” to the Chinese, but they have been accepted by 
the Chinese very quickly. Adaptability, one of the out- 
standing qualities of the Chinese people, is shown in 
the adjustment that has been made to the new economic 
environment. China has packed into the limits of a 
single generation the process of modernizing the physical 
environment of daily life in home and street and office, 
which has occupied Europe through the last three hun- 
dred years. 

To be sure, China has had the advantage of the ex- 
ample given by the West in the making of these adjust- 
ments, but even with allowance made for this advantage, 
it seems possible to claim that the Chinese in this single 
generation have made their adjustment to ‘‘modernized” 
living with far less of serious dislocation in habits and 
standards of living than is to be found in the history 
of Western experience in such adjustment. 


It is, however, a mistake to think of the Chinese people 
as fundamentally hostile towards ideas or articles from 
abroad. I have already shown that up to the beginning 
of the eighteenth century the Chinese Government as 
well as the Chinese people maintained a friendly interest 
in other peoples, and were eager to trade with them. 
It was only at the close of the long and glorious reign 


[41] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


of the liberal-minded Emperor K’ang Hsi of the Ch’ing 
dynasty (A.D. 1662-1722) that the official attitude of 
the Manchu Government was markedly changed and 
became hostile to foreigners and to foreign influences. 
The Emperor Yung Cheng (a.p. 1722-1735) was a 
mature man when he came to the throne, and seems to 
have been desirous of introducing a number of new poli- 
cies. He introduced a hostile attitude towards all sorts 
of foreigners and foreign goods, an attitude which seems 
to have developed out of his desire to secure his throne 
against rivalry and possible attack from several of his 
brothers, some of whom had affiliations with foreigners. 
In particular he turned his attention against the band 
of European Christians who, during the reign of his 
father, had been given high position and dignity on 
account of their mathematical ability. They had used the 
increased opportunities for preaching their religious mes- 
sage in work which had been followed by marked success. 

Yung Cheng’s successor, the great Ch’ien Lung 
(A.D. 1736-1796) was more liberal toward foreigners, 
although he did not permit them to carry on religious 
work. Ch’ien Lung’s conquests in Central Asia gave 
him respect in the eyes of all the Orient and the 
European states. Had his successors been men able to 
catry on in his spirit, China might have been welcomed 
into the “family of nations” at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century with honor and respect if not as a 
full equal. But the later Manchu Emperors were weak 
men. They and the majority of their advisers were small- 
minded and reverted to the anti-foreign policies of Yung 


[42] 


The Changing Environment 


Cheng, which led to the wars with European states over 
trading privileges; and short-sighted and unreasonable 
hostility on the one side incited to equally short-sighted 
and unreasonable aggression on the other. 

But in spite of the official governmental attitude of 
hostility to foreigners and to foreign goods maintained 
by the Manchu Government and its officers, the Chinese 
people showed themselves not only ready to use foreign 
goods of proved value, but eager to secure the advantage 
and convenience which foreign articles of good quality 
gave to them. As long ago as my boyhood the village 
women could always find in the stock of the itinerant 
pedler—the dub, dub, dub, dub of whose hand-drum 
indicated that his stock was dry goods—yang pu, foreign, 
or literally, “ocean” cloth and British thread; and on 
every river trip we boys used to look for the blue 
Indian head and other trade-marks from British and 
American cotton-mills to be seen in the picturesque 
sails of Grand Canal junks. And neither official pro- 
scription nor taboos of superstition could prevent the 
millions of China, rural as well as urban, from discover- 
ing that cheaper and vastly improved illumination could 
be obtained by displacing vegetable oils with foreign 
kerosene. 

There was not only a popular acceptance of useful 
articles from the West in spite of official proscription, 
but also progressive Chinese leaders, some of them like 
Li Hung Chang, men of high standing in the Govern- 
ment, recognized China’s urgent need for improved com- 
munications, steamships, railways, and telegraphs. These 


[43] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


men realized that China needed these things for her own 
good, and drew up plans by which the improvements 
desired could be carried out. 

These plans were checked in two ways: on the one 
hand, it was not possible to secure the approval of a 
majority in the government; on the other, the leaders 
came to realize that their own plans would not be of 
value to China unless they could be carried out under 
complete Chinese control. As Mr. Tyler Dennett rightly 
says: “It is quite clear that the Chinese were actually 
far more frightened by the importunities and utterly 
unscrupulous dealings of the foreigners than by feng- 
shui. They saw that to permit the foreigner to control 
communications and modern industry was to invite the 
enemy within the walls and prepare for an abject surren- 
der. The foreigners were unyielding, and therefore the 
Chinese called an abrupt halt and determined to continue 
without the new conveniences until they could be estab- 
lished under exclusive Chinese control.” ? 

However, no obstacles of any sort could prevent the 
people from making use of many products of Western 
manufacture. It is unnecessary to give figures to show 
the surprising increase in the foreign trade of China 
during the last decade of the nineteenth century. We 
are more concerned with the development of manufac- 
turing in China, for the changes which have resulted from 
that development have not only made cheaper and better 
goods available for the Chinese market, but the new 


1“The Industrial Invasion of China,’ The World Tomorrow, 
November, 1923. 


[44] 


The Changing Environment 


methods of manufacture introduced have created indus- 
trial problems which are beginning to affect the lives of 
thousands of Chinese workers. These latter changes, 
which have come in since 1900 and in particular since 
1911, have created new living conditions for almost all 
Chinese. In relation to the mew environment, the 
Christian enterprise and all foreign enterprises in China 
must face new and serious responsibilities. 

The beginning of modern factory production in China 
came in 1870 when a Canton company started a factory 
for spinning, using steam-operated machinery. The pub- 
lic was not ready for the enterprise, however; “farmers 
would not trust their cotton to this wizard concern,” and 
the enterprise came to a failure. It was not until 1890 
that another effort was made, this time successfully. A 
few years later, Western capital became interested in the 
possibility of establishing mills in China to make use of 
the enormous supply of cheap labor. These mills were 
at first operated without profit, because the supply of 
cotton was not equal to the demand. But a decade later 
the acreage devoted to cotton growing had so increased 
as to meet the demand of the mills for raw material, and 
from that time there has been a steady development of 
the cotton industry. 

The first attempt to start a silk filature by Chinese 
was made in 1882 and was again unsuccessful. By 1892 
it was possible to start mills that soon became produc- 
tive, and in 1901 Shanghai had twenty-eight mills, and 
silk skeins were being exported to Lyons, France, and to 
New York. 


[45] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


The development of these two industries was somewhat 
dependent upon the building of railroads. An unsuccess- 
ful beginning in this line was made in 18/75 with the 
building of the well-known road from Shanghai to 
Woosung, against which a popular outbreak occurred, 
so that the tracks were torn up. In 1881 a few miles of 
railroad were being successfully operated between the 
T’ang Shan coal mines and the head of the canal that led 
to Tientsin. After 1895 foreign interests had come to 
realize that railroad concessions were the most valuable 
prizes to be secured in China, and “the powers” were 
competing with each other in a fierce struggle to obtain 
them. The Peking-Moukden Railroad was built in 1897. 
Popular hostility was still expressed against this railroad, 
which may have been one of the contributing aggrava- 
tions that led to the fanatic Boxer outbreak. 

The victory of the Allies at that time convinced the 
most conservative-minded Manchu officials, as well as the 
superstitious common folk, that China could save her life 
in the modern world only by adopting the improvements 
in communications and manufacture which Western 
science had made available. In the years after 1901 de- 
velopment of railroads was rapid. The dissatisfaction of 
the people with the foreign control of railroads, and their 
demand that railroads should be owned by Chinese and 
managed for their own good rather than for producing 
dividends to enrich foreign stockholders, inaugurated the 
Revolution of 1911 which resulted in the establishing of 
the Republic. With six thousand miles of railroad in 
operation and the emphasis on economic development 


[46] 


The Changing Environment 


given by the liberal leaders of the revolution, manufac- 
tures in China received a new impetus. In spite of politi- 
cal chaos and anarchy during the last decade, this develop- 
ment has gone steadily on. 


As an example of the rapid industrial growth that is 
possible in China, because of the two important favoring 
factors,—(1) abundant supply of raw material, and (2) 
abundant supply of cheap labor,—note theshair-net indus- 
try of Chefoo. In 1914 between three thousand and five 
thousand gross of hair-nets were exported. The next 
year the business increased one hundred per cent. In the 
year 1921 it developed threefold over the preceding year, 
and in 1922 two million gross, worth $7,500,000 (silver), 
were exported. Similar growth has been manifest in the 
last three or four years in almost every line of manufac- 
ture in China. In 1920, two years after the War, two 
hundred new enterprises in the cotton industry alone were 
started with $75,000,000 (silver) of Chinese capital. 
There were in Shanghai in 1922 thirty-three Chinese- 
owned mills with 1,200,000 spindles and 9,000 employees 
at work. For several years these mills have been de- 
claring a twenty per cent dividend annually. The China 
Year Book for 1923, edited by H. G. W. Woodhead, 
editor of the Peking and Tientsin Times, presents in 
Chapter XIX, under the title “Manufactures,” an impos- 
ing list of factories already established in practically every 
province of China. The industries that have been par- 
ticularly associated with China for centuries, such as 
porcelain and earthenware, lacquer, cloisonné, carpets 

[47] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


and rugs, fireworks, mats and matting, and palm-leaf fans, 
are not included in the list which is rather a presentation 
of the extent to which modern methods of manufacture 
have been adopted in order to meet the growing demands 
of the enormous Chinese population for convenient and 
serviceable manufactured goods, and to anticipate the 
possibilities of cheap production offered in China for 


developing export trade. 
This list names : 


Albumen factories 

Asbestos 

Arsenals 

Canneries and biscuit factories 

Cement and brick works 

Chemical and dye works 

Cotton spinning and weaving 
mills 

Distilleries, breweries, etc. 

Dockyards, shipbuilding, etc. 

Electric light and power works 

Flour mills 

Furniture factories 

Gas works 

Glass and porcelain works 

Grass-cloth factories 

Ice and cold-storage works 

Iron and steel works 

Lace and hair-net factories 

Leather factories and tanneries 


Match factories 

Oil mills and beancake factories 

Paper mills 

Piano and organ factories 

Printing and lithography 

Railway works 

Rice hulling and cleaning mills 

Rope factories 

Sawmills 

Silk filatures and weaving mills 

Smelting works 

Soap and candle factories 

Sugar refineries 

Tea factories 

Telephone installations 

Tobacco factories 

Tram-ways 

Woolen factories 

Wool-cleaning and press-pack- 
ing 


Shanghai is the greatest industrial center in China, and 
twenty-nine of these industries are represented in the 


Shanghai factories. 


But there are sixty-two other cities 


in China which have one or more industries. 


[48] 


The Changing Environment 


The surprising development of these recent years is 
simply a little sign of what is to take place within the next 
decade. Try to think of the enormous population of 
China—four hundred millions—and consider what it will 
mean to any of the industries named when even a frac- 
tion of one per cent of that population has found for 
itself the need for a given manufactured article. 

This thought came to me very vividly. one day as I 
was cycling on a country road against a hot wind-and- 
dust storm on the North China plain on my way to a 
preaching service. I met a lad of twelve or thirteen 
wearing a pair of dark glass goggles. He had slung over 
his shoulder a basket of willow withes which might have 
been used by his ancestor three thousand years ago. He 
was of a very poor family, and was out to pick up grass 
and leaves and any sort of scraps that could be used for 
fuel, but he wore to protect his eyes from the raging, 
yellow loess-dust, a pair of goggles, cheaply made, to be 
sure, but still modeled after the style that has come into 
use in Europe and America with automobile driving. 
Parisian fashions adapted for the convenient use of the 
poorest families in China! 

The possibilities illustrated by such an incident lead 
sober observers of China’s present and future life to 
reflect that Shanghai, the port that ministers to a “hinter- 
land” more populated than that which lies behind any 
other of the world’s greatest cities, may be destined to 
become the largest city of the world. 

This prospect of China’s economic future renders only 
the more pathetic the widespread and bitter poverty of 


[49] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


great masses of the population and the frequency in dif- 
ferent sections of famine or flood or banditry—or of all 
three at once. With the undeveloped state of communi- 
cations, many of the above-mentioned manufactures have 
as yet only the most limited circulation. The visitor who 
expects to find China still stagnant will receive some 
severe mental jolts, as will the one who pictures the 
country as having generally abandoned its old ways. 
Earnestly as we welcome the development of natural 
resources, we must recognize the new problems that it 
raises. 

Social workers are already studying with anxious care 
changes in Chinese life produced by the vast industrial 
development which has been briefly indicated. Many 
features of Chinese life will be gravely affected by 
these changes, but it is not China alone that will feel 
their influence. It is more than time for social re- 
searchers throughout the world to give exact and pene- 
trating attention to the possible effects on world markets 
and world life of large scale production in China. It is 
necessary to consider carefully the international conse- 
quences to be expected ‘‘when China competes.” 

Upon those particularly interested in human values 
another set of problems press. What will it mean for 
the manhood and womanhood of China if thousands are 
to be caught in the machinery of factory production? Is 
there any possibility of saving China from the worst 
effects that have come to Western peoples with the “fac- 
tory system’? Can the most ardent optimist believe that 


[50] 


The Changing Environment 


aes 


the traditional humanism of the Chinese will prevail 
against the inhuman mechanism involved in the adoption 
of scientific inventions for manufacturing? Is it possible 
in any way to reenforce the traditional emphasis on 
human values, which Chinese sages in successive genera- 
tions have stressed, so that the good of man may not be 
lost sight of and overwhelmed in the rising tide of in- 
dustrial production? 

To be sure this industrialism has come to China as a 
gift from the West, but she cannot blame Westerners en- 
tirely for involving her in its toils. No nation can share 
in the life of this modern world without facing similar 
problems. The conveniences and comfort that come 
from the cheap and serviceable goods in our factories 
are demanded by every intelligent people. More earnest 
efforts are needed to insure that the larger use of the 
machine-made goods may bring to mankind not only con- 
venience, but enrichment of human life as well. The 
wonderful tools with which science has provided the race 
can be used to relieve men from drudgery. 

Have we not a right to expect that the Chinese, be- 
cause of their long heritage of humanism, may be able 
‘to avoid the worst evils that befall Europe and America 
in their struggle with industrial mechanism? The Chinese 
may offer solutions of these evils that will have fresh 
significance and value for the Western peoples also. In 
a recent discussion of “Capitalism in China” shared by 
Chinese and Westerners, interesting suggestions were 
made regarding the possibility that China may develop a 

[51] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


distinctive order of social institutions through which the 
values of machine production may be held and the evils 
thereof avoided. Professor J. B. Tayler, Head of the 
Department of Economics in the Christian Peking Uni- 
versity (Yenching Ta Hsueh), reminds us that in China 
“institutions and influences from earlier stages of de- 
velopment persist with quite unusual strength into mod- 
ern times,” and suggests that the “joint family” and the 
“Chinese gild system” may be made use of to overcome 
the sharp division in the process of production between 
capital and the factory manager on the one hand and 
labor and the workmen on the other, a division which 
lies at the basis of almost all of our industrial difficulties 
in the West.* 


Unfortunately these indigenous constructive social 
forces in China have not been strong enough to head off 
the beginnings of serious conflict between the workmen 
and the factory operator. A “labor movement,” stimu- 
lated by the Russian Revolution and the Chinese Student 
Movement of 1919, is already in process of development. 
Progressive-minded students have been eager preachers 
of social and patriotic ideals to their fellow countrymen 
of every class, but in particular to those whose contact 
with new ideas must be made through the spoken rather 
than the written word. Already news of strikes and of 
labor unions is often seen in the newspapers, although 
it is “estimated that only one thirtieth of the total of one 


1 The World Tomorrow. November, 1923. Special number on 
“Capitalism in China.” 
[52] 


—— 


The Changing Environment 
million workers in Shanghai are subject to the influence 
of agitators.” + 

There are already organized unions or “laborers’ clubs” 
for cooks, employees of vegetable shops, engravers, furni- 
ture laborers, wood polishers, printers, steamship labor- 
ers, sailors, engine-room laborers, mechanics, shipping 
coolies, girls’ hosiery makers, silk and crépe-dyeing labor- 
ers, gunny-bag makers, ricksha coolies, gold- and silver- 
smiths, weavers and spinners, sugar employers and em- 
ployees, blacksmiths, carpenters, and masons, Chinese re- 
turned laborers, electroplating laborers, Hongkong sea- 
men, wharf coolies, laundrymen, coppersmiths, barbers, 
shoemakers, foreign-furniture makers, builders, Pootung ? 
spinners and weavers, warehouse coolies. Such unions or 
clubs are not distinctly socialistic or radical, but aim at 
the education of the worker and seek to secure a wage 
scale that will fit the conditions of living in China. It 
would be very interesting to study the effect on the labor- | 
ing classes in China of the ideas brought back to them 
by the members of the “labor battalions” who served the 
French and British armies in France during the War. In 
a number of cases it is known that these men have 
been spreading the idea of organization for the sake of 
maintaining the rights of the laborer to a reasonably com- 
fortable life, emphasis on class consciousness, and, in 
some cases, radical social theories. 


1 Paper on “Industrialization of China,” prepared by Miss Ruth 
Hoople of the Young Women’s Christian Association of China, 
for seminar on “Current Movements in China,” Department of 
Chinese, Columbia University, 1923. 

2 The industrial section of Shanghai. 


[53] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


The steamfitters’ and engineers’ strike in April, 1920, 
conducted at Hongkong by the Chinese Engineers’ Union 
is an example of what may happen in industrial centers 
in China if labor is not treated more frankly and fairly. 
The strike was called in order to enforce a demand for 
a wage increase and resulted in securing an increase of 
thirty-two and one half per cent. People in China at 
the time were told by newspaper reporters, who had 
covered great strikes in other countries, that this Hong- 
kong strike was the most complete tie-up they had ever 
witnessed. This was because practically all laborers in 
the colony of Hongkong including the purveyors of food 
and household servants also went on strike in sympathy 
with the seamen 


The development of industrialism not only imperils 
some of the most precious elements of the social, ethical, 
and spiritual heritage of China, but already threatens the 
physical well-being of thousands of Chinese. If the evil 
tendencies of machine production, with the consequent 
exploitation of cheap laborers, are not checked, industrial- 
ism will lead to the dehumanizing of the lives of millions. 
Many Chinese see the twofold aspects of the problem — 
which the inevitable contact with modern scientific civili- 
zation has forced China to face. They realize also the 
critical character of the decision that is to be reached. 
Can the fine humanism which has characterized Chinese 
culture from its beginning maintain itself in spite of the 
fundamental changes which machine production is bring- 
ing about in the environment of the race that has trans- 


[54] 


Si Tass te Sas US 8 TSA US A EVR CS oO 

The Changing Environment 
Saree eterna tyr ty Ome ee eA. vi wether tO iy 
mitted that humanism? Can the spirit of Chinese culture 
show in these days power to receive stimulus from for- 
eign contacts? Can it choose the elements of value from 
the foreign culture and assimilate these elements in a 
quickened and refertilized life? Can it manifest again 
the creative power which it has shown so notably in its 
experience through the centuries, especially in its contact 
with Hindu culture as brought through the medium 
of Buddhism? The Chinese people appreciate the com- 
fort and convenience to be secured by the use of certain 
factory-made goods; they see clearly the extent to which 
the forces of nature, harnessed by means of mighty ma- 
chines, can be made to lift from the shoulders of men 
those heavy burdens of drudgery in physical toil under 
which their bodies have bowed for centuries; but they see 
with equal clearness the disaster that may be brought by 
these very machines, the sorrowful possibility that the 
Chinese may lose some of the finest characteristics which 
their own indigenous culture has brought them; the 
danger to the “family spirit” and the “clan system” ; 
the danger of losing the happy intimacy with nature that 
has been their solace in the past; the upsetting of those 
“relationships” on which has been based not only the 
political structure, but the social and moral life of the 
people as well. Will Chinese leaders arise who can show 
a way by which that which is good in the modern gifts 
which the West is bringing to China and which the 
Chinese themselves are eager to receive may be accepted 
and made use of for the public good, while at the same 
time the sinister and dangerous inhumanities so closely 


[55] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


associated with the good things in these very gifts may be 
checked and eliminated? 


The Chinese see, perhaps even better than Westerners, 


what enormous release of vital, human energy may be 


secured by laying upon machines as much as possible of 
the crushing drudgeries of life. Contrast the piers of 
some American port with the “Bund” of Shanghai or 
Tientsin. On the American shore of the Pacific Ocean 
great arms of steel with muscles of steam and nerves 
of electricity effectively and quickly load and unload the 
ships and handle the tons of goods to be transported and 
distributed; on the Chinese sea-front of the same ocean 
thousands of men and women with straining backs and 
arms haul and lift and carry the same heavy loads, re- 
ceiving a wage which is not comparable either in pur- 
chasing power or in the freedom and leisure that belong 
to it to the reward given the relatively few Westerners 
who guide the machines. On the streets the “man power 
cart”—jinrikisha—still does the work of Western trol- 
leys and subways. Western labor should surely bless 
the machines that have replaced aching muscles. 

But is there certainty that the release of the Chinese 
coolie from the frightful burden of hard labor that has 
been his for generations, if it must be secured by the 
use of all the Western factory methods of machine pro- 
duction, can promise to him the same cheerfulness ex- 
pressed in the chanties and rhythmic songs that have ac- 
companied his labor from of old? Will machines in- 
crease for the coolie that capacity to enjoy every moment 


[56] 


RE 


Bait t= Bis 


ee a ee ee 


The Changing Environment 


of leisure, which is such a distinctive characteristic? Or 
will it deaden by its monotony these older capacities ? 

Such questions as these perplex the minds of all Chinese 
who look intelligently on the processes manifested in 
Chinese life today. Can these perplexed questioners re- 
ceive guidance and hope from the Christian messengers ? 
Is it possible to assure the Chinese that the teachings of 
Jesus, if understood and accepted, will make it possible 
for them to receive the good of Western gifts and main- 
tain safely their own humanism? Can we prove that 
Christ’s gospel will come to them as “fulfilment” of all 
the best in their own traditional humanism? That the 
good news of a loving Father and of the human house- 
hold of brotherly men will mean only reenforcement of 
all the old values and creative inspiration toward a re- 
vitalized humanism through intimate fellowship with 
divine Love? Can we give evidence that the Christian 
spirit, if it is truly applied to modern life, does bring 
personal and social salvation, not only from drudgery, 
but from a narrow view of life as well? 


4. Christian Efforts toward Economic and Social 
Adjustment 


Such questions as these present in an acute form 
China’s challenge to Christianity. At first Christian 
leaders could not give any but a general answer to the 
questions raised. Missions and churches had given little 
heed to the slow but irresistible oncoming of industrial- 
ism. As Tyler Dennett says, “There was little until 


[57] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


recently in the missionary enterprise designed specifically 
to prepare Chinese to discriminate and control their in- 
dustrial development with a view to humanitarian con- 


siderations.” But the response of the Chinese churches 
to the challenge, while feeble and disorganized at first, 


has become during very recent years one of its chief 
interests and means of expression. Several centuries of 
bitter experience with industrial expansion in the West 


had taught some of the churches the supreme importance 


‘of bringing every possible humanitarian influence in the 


PSN cpa ng 


church to bear on conditions of labor as early as possible 
in the economic development of any people. In the West 
the churches had failed to anticipate the inhumanities 
of industrialism and had faltered in leadership at the 
social crisis. Should not Christians from the West living 
in China do something to warn the Chinese of the in- 
sidious and unhuman effects of the economic devices 
which are being copied from the West? Could not a 
Christian effort offset the worst evils of that other great 
Western influence, Industrialism ? 


To Christian women must be given the credit for the 
first definite and organized steps to meet the new danger.’ 
In the autumn of 1919 the Social Service section of the 
Federation of the Women’s Boards of Foreign Missions 
sent an industrial specialist to Japan and China to in- 
vestigate labor conditions. At a conference of women, 
Chinese and foreign, held in Shanghai,t a Commission 
on Social Service recommended the immediate appoint- 


1 January, 1920. 


[58] 


The Changing Environment 


ment by the combined missions and churches in China 
of a National Social Service Committee on which two 
women specialists were to serve, one on child labor and 
one on women in industry. This was the first organized 
attempt of an interdenominational group to bring the 
Chinese churches face to face with a situation which 
promised to become more alarming each year. What 
matter if the recommendation of these women never was 
put into effect? A clear note of warning and of duty 
had been sounded. Before very long the men would 
be sure to fall in line. Then an industrial system based 
on Christian love and justice would become the common 
ideal of all. China has always had its trained workers in 
medicine, education, and evangelism. More recently it 
has had its specialists in agriculture. Soon it was to have 
specialists in social service and industrial welfare. 


As recently as 1920 the Chinese Church was still ill 
prepared in personnel and organization to meet the tre- 
mendous challenge which daily became more insistent. 
For several years before the Women’s Conference the 
National Young Men’s Christian Association maintained 
an industrial department. Social and industrial welfare 
work of various kinds was going on in the larger indus- 
trial cities such as Shanghai, Hankow, and Wuchang. 
The sociology departments of. such colleges as Shanghai 
College and Yenching University were promoting social 
service activities in industrial communities and main- 
taining settlements patterned after those in America. But 
with one exception local industrial secretaries did not 


[59] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


exist. In 1921 the Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
tion secured Miss Agatha Harrison, head of the depart- 
ment for the training of welfare workers in the London 
School of Economics, as its national industrial secretary. 
Associated with Miss Harrison was Miss Zung Wei 
Tsung. From now on both Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. 
boasted of industrial departments. Rather than begin a 
program of recreational and other activities among em- 
ployed women, the Y.W.C.A. elected to “begin at once 
to make a direct and accurate study of industrial condi- 
tions in typical centers, to equip itself with the knowledge 
which will enable it to serve both employers and em- 
ployees in the most constructive ways, and to help 
create the public opinion that must precede legislation 
both within and without church constituencies.” 

Then came 1922, with two gatherings of epoch-making 
significance : the conference of the World’s Student Chris- 
tian Federation which met in Peking in April, and the 
National Christian Conference held in Shanghai in May. 
At the Peking conference, attended by students from 
thirty-seven nations and including six hundred delegates 
from the schools and colleges of China, the relation of 
Christianity to social and industrial problems came up 
for daily discussion. The significance of these discus- 
sions held at Peking—and in student groups all over 
China before and after the Peking Conference—cannot 
be overestimated when one contemplates how many of 
China’s future factory owners may have taken active 
,part in them. | 
© Consider the creed of these Christian and non-Chris- 


[60] 


The Changing Environment 


tian students: “The construction of our ideal society is | 
based on the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ. There- | 
fore, we believe in the absolute sacred value of the indi- i 
vidual, in love as the basis of human fellowship, and i inj 
mutual service as the means of human progress.” 

In accordance with the above three principles thesed 
students proposed among others that “cooperation should’ 
be the principle of all economic development, that eco- 
nomic efficiency should seek the good of society and not 
the selfish interests of individuals, and that neither pri- 
vate nor group ownership of capital is absolute, but that 
all possessions are a trust from the community.” 

In accordance with these principles it was agreed “that 
there should be the largest measure of industrial self- 
government with real freedom for the worker, that the 
community should be responsible for the regulation of 
conditions of labor, especially in the case of women and 
children, and in dangerous trades.” The wide publicity 
given to these conclusions of the Peking conference in- 
creased the interest of Chinese in industrial questions 
and opened still further the door of opportunity for the 
Church. 


The National Christian Conference held a month later 
and attended by over a thousand Christian Chinese and 
foreign missionaries from every province of China gave 
the second great impetus “to the Church’to face her re- 
sponsibility for the welfare of great hordes of men, 
women, and children now so swiftly being drawn into 
the new factory life of China.” More than a year was 


[61] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


spent in gathering information for a carefully prepared 
report on the “Relation of the Church to China’s Social 
and Industrial Problems.” Through corresponding mem- 
bers scattered all over China this material was collected 
under three classifications: Agriculture, Handicraft, and 
Modern Industry. So significant and timely a report 
quickly assumed the form of a challenge. Here was a 
matter on which the united Church of China should and 
could speak—a definite task in which all could unite at 
once. To fail now in answering so obvious a challenge 
was to forego the opportunity of a decade, to be un- 
patriotic—and un-Christian. The following words tell 
the answer: 

“Believing that the Church cannot but accept this 
challenge, your committee offers the following recom- 
mendations: (1) That the Church hasten to equip itself 
with all possible knowledge on the development of mod- 
ern industry in China and on the experience of the West 
. upon which we should draw for meeting the situation 
here. (2) That the Church, recognizing the need for a 
labor standard for China, endorse the setting, as a goal, 
of the standard adopted at the First International Con- 


ference of the League of Nations dealing with hours of © 


work, unemployment, employment of women before and 
after childbirth, night work for women and children, 
safeguarding the health of workers, and child labor. 
(3) That in view of the difficulty of immediate applica- 
tion of the League of Nations standard to the industrial 
situation in China the following standard be adopted 
and promoted by the Church for application now: (a) No 
[62] 


ee ee 


is Me 


The Changing Environment 


employment of children under twelve years of age. (b) 
One day’s rest in seven. (c) The safeguarding of the 
health of workers; e.g., limitation of working hours, 1m- 
provement of sanitary conditions, and installation of 
safety devices.” 

The threefold labor standard embedded in the above 
recommendations was passed by the 1,189 delegates with 
but one dissenting vote. It was further unanimously 
recommended that the newly organized National Chris- 
tian Council give these standards the widest publicity. 


Following the National Christian Conference, indus- 
trial conditions became one of the chief interests of the 
Chitiése Church. A national industrial commission was 
appointed. Groups of missionaries in a number of the 
larger cities met to consider ways and means of bringing 
Christ’s teachings and the threefold standards of the 
Church to bear on industrial relationships. Native church 
leaders in their attempt to humanize industry voted to 
apply the threefold standard to church and mission con- 
tracts. Synods, conferences, and individual churches, 
reviewing the actions at the National Christian Confer- 
ence, expressed hearty accord. At last the united Church 
of China was out on a magnificent social crusade. Stu- 
dents in mission schools volunteered their services as 
teachers in night schools which the Church was urged to 
start for poor children of the community. Young men 
gave themselves with enthusiasm to educational cam- 
paigns for the illiterate or social service for the poor. 

In Chefoo less than eight months after the National 

[63] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


Christian Conference forty-two Christian managers and 
employees met together in an earnest attempt to discover 
how they might put into effect these three resolutions on 
employment of children, one day’s rest in seven, and the 
safeguarding of the health of workers, The presiding 
officer, himself a factory manager, urged the necessity 
of Christian employers giving non-Christian industrial 
leaders an example of Christian love. The manager of 
the Chefoo Hair-net Factory was the chief speaker. He 
challenged his fellows to become pioneers in bringing in 
a more righteous industrial order. Lest the uninformed 
might accuse him of being more ready to speak than to 
act, he referred to a recent decision of the Hair-net 
Manufacturers’ Association to give Sunday free with full 
pay to eighteen thousand workers. The local churches 
were urged to push forward their industrial programs and 
told how powerful the preaching of the gospel in terms 
like these can really be. 

Dr. Sherwood Eddy’s visit to China, with his strong 
emphasis on the social implications of the gospel, added 
to the interest of the Church in social evangelism. At a 
two-day conference of those interested in social problems 
called by the National Christian Council in Shanghai, Dr. 
Eddy submitted the following questions for discussion: 
(1) How may we organize leaders of the Church in China 
and help them function? (2) How can we effectively 
coordinate the socially-minded groups in China, keeping 
each in touch with other local situations? Do we need 
in China a bureau of industrial research, or how can 
we get effective information pooled? (4) Do we need 


[64] 


LL welt TAUREN tie RO ARR OT STO OE 
The Changing Environment 


an annual conference on social work? (5) How can we 
relate our movement to non-Christian groups of socially 
minded people? The report of the Resolutions Commit- 
tee of this Conference is a significant document. 


Summarizing the activities within the Church at the 
present hour one is fairly amazed at the momentum of 
the movement. Letters offering help from national head- 
quarters have been sent to all cities where industrial 
committees are known to be at work. Study group ma- 
terial is being prepared. An advisory group is being 
formed to give assistance on the difficult matter of 
Chinese phraseology for industrial terms. Schemes are 
being discussed for the training of leaders. Cooperation 
with medical groups is being sought with reference to 
industrial hygiene. At the express invitation of the Na- 
tional Christian Council, Dame Adelaide Anderson, who 
has been an inspector of factories in England since 1894, 
is spending the winter and spring of 1924 visiting various 
industrial centers in China. She will take counsel with 
Christian leaders and others upon the most pressing needs 
of the situation. The Commission on Church and In- 
dustry hopes to arrange for a series of special conferences 
on this topic to be held in different parts of China, lead- 
ing up to a national convention on lines similar to those 
being followed by the Conference on Politics, Economics, 
and Citizenship in England and the Conference on the 
Christian Way of Life in America. These preliminary 
meetings are designed in the hope that they may focus 


1 See Appendix. 
[65] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


attention and develop the thinking of Chinese to the point 
at which the Christian conscience in China can become 
articulate in regard to these grave issues. Part of a 
report from one such gathering follows: 

“A group of Nanking Christians, Chinese and for- 
eigners, interested in the relation of the Church to in- 
dustrial and economic conditions in China, met in two 
sessions of an informal conference last month. The 
thinking of the conference revolved around three ques- 
tions: (1) What is the relation of the local church to this 
problem? (2) What are local industrial conditions? 
(3) What form of organization is needed to promote 
this work? While considerable social activity on the part 
of the Church was reported, no concerted action with 
regard to industrial conditions has as yet been started. 

“Local industries were divided into three groups: 
(1) old style; (2) semi-modern, or those having rudi- 
ments of cooperation and an increase in the use of 
modern tools; and (3) the modern, or those industries 
characterized by cooperative control and the use of power 
machinery. It was evident that the local problem is 
almost entirely concerned with Chinese. It was pointed 


out that there is a group of young Chinese interested in — 


these problems who might be won to the Church if the 
Church had an aggressive program along these lines. The 
opinion was expressed that the study of particular in- 
dustries might well be put into school curricula. The 
need of a ‘Guide’ for such student study was also indi- 
cated. It was suggested that an effective way to promote 
interest is to have a sermon on this subject and then 


[66] 


? 


The Changing Environment 


follow that with a distribution of suitable literature.” 

Very recently as a result of a conference in Peking 
on mission industrial work, the National Christian In- 
dustries Association was organized with the purpose of 
relating mission industries more closely to the solution 
of industrial problems in China. Mission industries have 
hitherto been quite independent of each other. fF re- 
quently the person in charge has been without any special 
training in social economics or business, and therefore 
has been unprepared for the responsibilities to workers 
which naturally arose out of such enterprises. In other 
parts of the country representatives of mission industries 
and mission industrial schools have come together with a 
like purpose. 


It is too early to appraise the full significance of the 
present interest in industrial conditions. That we are wit- 
nessing an event in the history of young Christian 
churches which, let it be said to our shame, has no parallel 
in the history of our Western Church is well beyond dis- 


‘ pute. The Christian forces are in the forefront of the 
' forces attacking the evils of the factory system and of 
| the exploitation of the laborer. The Church is actually 
| fighting the battle of the working classes. None can 
prophesy just where the present movement will lead the 
_ Church. None can anticipate what changes in its mes- 
- sages and influence will result. But all can rejoice that 

_ the Christian forces have taken up the challenge. 


Thronging questions come to mind. Can Christians — 
maintain such effective effort as to be worthy of the 


[67] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


leadership in social relief and social reconstruction for 
a long period? Will it be possible for Christian leaders 
to cooperate with all the forces at work against the com- 
mon enemy instead of alienating valuable allies? Will 
it be possible to stimulate into fresh vitality the tradi- 
tional humanism of the Chinese race and bring in native 
reenforcements against what are now such overwhelming 
odds? Might we not even hope for some solution in China 
of industrial problems that could be applied in the West 
as well? 

¢ In the Chinese we see a practical minded people, a 
' people who have made successful use of humanized social 
- habits for the ordering of their life, a people of amazing 
common sense, and one whose ideal is the “Way of the 
_ Mean,” or golden mean, between extremes. Is there not 
_a chance that this gifted people if it wins for itself the 
‘ vision of Christ may rescue Christianity from thé divi- 
sive and fine-spun theologies with which the Greeks and 
Europeans encrusted the teaching of Jesus, and recover 
the practical Way of life that He lived, the way of loving, 
devoted service to men based on complete trust in the 
love of God? 

The future cannot be foretold. But in the present, 
Christians everywhere can support the Chinese Church 
in its struggle with industrialism by maintaining their 
own efforts against the same enemy at home. China’s 
problems would be more easily solved if she had to meet 
only her own Chinese factory owners and managers, and 
to convert them alone to humane and kindly ways. The 
Western industrialist complicates the situation. He is 

[68] 


The Changing Environment 


not always unsocial. But he is less amenable to Chinese 
pressure. His nationality complicates the situation. His 
person and his property have the potentialities of be- 
coming international complications. He ought to be an 
example in the righteousness of business. There is a real 
challenge to Western Christianity to bring influence to 
bear upon Western industry in China that will make 
easier the task of the young Church of China in following 
its program for social service. Those efforts will be 
far more effective when reenforced by the example of a 
greater Christianizing and humanizing of industry in the 
West. The world must be saved as a whole, not by na- 
tions or hemispheres. 

If Christianity in the West has not been adequate to 
save Western life from the worst evils of the new eco- 
nomic order, what message can it offer to China? Is 
not the situation in China and the need there a fresh 
challenge to Christianity the world over? 


[69] 


II] 
The Rural Majority 


“China is dominantly, overwhelmingly rural. Out of 
a population estimated at four hundred millions not over 
twelve per cent live in communities having a population 
of ten thousand or more. It is probably conservative to 
state that three fourths of the population are farmers. 
While the United States has thirty million farmers— 
men, women, and children—China has ten times as many. 
This stupendous fact of itself challenges the Christian 
Church. If there is to be a Christian occupation in 
China, it cannot be confined to Peking and Shanghai and 
Canton, nor even to the smaller walled cities. It must 
reach, at least measurably, these great rural hosts.” + 


This is the statement of an American expert in agri- 


cultural matters, President Kenyon L. Butterfield of the 
Massachusetts College of Agriculture. We need such a 
statement to remind ourselves that however impressive 
the changes to be noted in the coast area resulting from 


contact with the West and the introduction of Western | 


goods and methods, and however thorough-going the in- 
tellectual changes to be found among the intelligentsia 
of the nation, no sketch of modern China is true to the 
life that does not picture the central importance of the 
agricultural hosts of the nation. They form today, as 
they have formed through the centuries, not only the 
overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, but the 


1 International Review of et April, 1923. 
7O 


Sy eS oe ee ee 


The Rural Majority 


social group that is of fundamental importance in the 
culture and life of the nation. 

And on what foundations have the culture and life of 
the nation been built? The products of the farms of 
China feed the nation. The moral ideas of the rural 
majority have been a bulwark for righteousness through 
centuries, a bulwark not even yet completely broken 
down by either inner decay or attack from without. The 
spirit of courtesy and good manners learned long ago 
from Confucius, who discovered for his people the funda- 
mental value of social habits by which all the people 
could be supplied with rules for conduct in every rela- 
tionship their life presented, still marks the speech and 
actions of the simplest peasant and most unskilled laborer 
as well as the scholar and gentleman. The social soli- 
darity produced by these same Confucian “social habits” 
based on the “family system” as the unit of human organi- 
zation still persists, and the strength of its bonds has 
enabled the Chinese people to “carry on” through the 
periods of political anarchy and chaos that have marked 
the twenty-four transitions from one dynasty to another. 
It is this element of strength that has made it possible 
for their daily life to go on through the latest transition 
from monarchy to nominal republicanism with compara- 
tive indifference to the rivalries of partisan tuchuns and 
their warfare. The fundamental democracy of the village 
communities and the associations in which it is expressed 
are not only vigorous for the control of local affairs, but 
furnish an experience as well as a vitality that give 
promise in these days when improving communications 


[71] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


give wider scope to the neighborhood spirit in provincial 
and even national groups. Village life in China is the 
typical Chinese life. For good as well as for evil this 
village life is fundamental. Let us turn from the beaten 
paths of sightseeing, commerce, and diplomacy to follow 
country roads beside the farms and into the hamlets and 
homes of the fine country folk of China. 


1. “Farmers of Forty Centuries’ 


Nowhere in the world is it easier than in China to 
turn back the pages of history and plunge from the 
steam-driven, electrically controlled, international life of 
our twentieth century into the quiet rusticity of two thou- 
sand years ago. 

Come with me into the courtyard of an inland Chinese 
farm home. The adobe brick of the buildings is tamped 
into molds similar to those pictured on the walls of 
Egyptian tombs in the days of Tut-ankh-amen. The main 
building faces the south and is usually flanked by side 
buildings which, with the wall surrounding the court, 
make a good windbreak against storms of rain and dust, 
and form a veritable trap in which to hold the winter 
sunshine. With a matting awning or covered with a 
green roof of gourd leaves, this same court in summer 
affords unusual coolness. Under the narrow eaves will 
be found corn and grain hung for drying; on some of the 
roofs, which have but little pitch, may be seen the bright 
colors of yellow maize or dark red dates or brown nuts, 
and perhaps rose leaves to be “sun-kissed” and dried. 


[72] 


The Rural Majority 


Simple courtyards such as these were invented when men 
first began to turn from hunting and herding with flocks 
to settled agricultural life. 

Within the home is the kuo, a shallow fire-pot on 
which practically all the family cooking is done. The 
kuo itself is made of iron in a simple fashion that per- 
sists from the time of its invention, unknown centuries 
ago. Set about on this kitchen range are pots made of 
the same material, many of them in the same form as 
those recently discovered in a “kitchen midden” at Yang- 
shao in Honan, which dates from Neolithic times. Then, 
as now, all cooking utensils were made very thin in order 
to make every possible economy of fuel, and often they 
were constructed so as to bring the fluids they contained 
as close as possible to the fire for quick and economical 
heating. Around the room hang dippers and food con- 
tainers made of gourds that might have grown on Jonah’s 
vine. 

A further saving of fuel and of heat is found in the 
construction of the flues which run from the kitchen fire 
into the next room and under the kang, or brick dais, on 
which the family finds a warm bed for sleeping. Here, 
too, the women of the household sit and do the family 
sewing during the cold days of winter. Even though 
eventually the flues end in a chimney, it is evident that 
such flues cannot give a very vigorous draft. Not all the 
smoke warms the kang or escapes through the chimney; 
a good deal of it fills the house, warming the air, to be 
sure, but smarting the eyes as well. The outer walls of 
the buildings are practically windowless, in order to 


173] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


give protection—at least in North China—against the 
prevailing northwest winds that rush down over the 
plains from the cold Mongolian and Tibetan highland 
plateaus. But on the court side of the rooms there is only 
a half-wall, above which are placed the paper-covered 
lattices of wood through which the rooms are lighted, for 
paper is not only far less expensive than glass, but it pro- 
tects better against radiation. At a few places tiny panes 
of glass replace the paper in order to give outlooks into 
the court, and curious “wind-ears” of paper, placed on the 
outside just under the eaves, give some ventilation which 
is supplemented by a neat contrivance of extreme sim- 
plicity by which at certain points the paper can be rolled 
up on warm days. Of course, in the summer the paper 
of the lattices can be removed, and the family gets all 
the advantages of our modern sleeping-porch. 


For the most part the family will eat the products of 
its own land. In one of the side houses flanking the 
main court will be found the stores of grain—wheat, 
Indian corn, and various kinds of millet in Northern 
China, and rice for the most part in Southern China; 
while in the “root-house,” which will be found in the court 
of every well-conducted household, are kept supplies of 
vegetables. There will be carrots, turnips, and sweet po- 
tatoes, and great quantities of delicious pai tsat or cab- 
bage—this latter a regular part of the dietary of all 
Northern Chinese peasants and already known to many 
Americans by its Anglicized name, or as Chinese lettuce- 


cabbage. 
[74] 


F f 
. 
f 
‘t 


The Rural Majority 


In addition to these home products the family will 
purchase on the village “market days,’ which come at 
regular intervals of from five to two days according to 
the size of the hamlet, the turnips pickled in salt, vinegar, 
various sauces, and other “store goods,” which are used 
to make the savory soupy dish eaten with bread-cakes 
and rice, or cereal porridge. On special festival days 
Father will bring home a pound or two of pork or 
mutton to give the family a feast. Now and then he 
prepares for guests a chicken from the little flock that 
wanders about the courtyard. These fowls are not the 
barnyard aristocrats of America, fed on specially pre- 
pared food, but they must make their own living from 
the “crumbs” that fall from the householder’s table and 
from the grain spilled in the barnyard where the family 
ox and ass are kept. A few ducks may also help the 
chickens, taking particular advantage of what is to be 
found in farmyard puddles or the village pond. A well- 
to-do farmer will have in one corner of his barnyard a 
pigsty, and he will fatten his own pork on the refuse 
from the family table. 


Only in recent years has Western science demonstrated 
by elaborate experiments the actual amount of saving 
that lies back of this ancient system of economy in food 
values practised by Chinese farmers. It is now known 
that the prevailing vegetable diet of the Chinese is a 
saving, because direct consumption of grain and vegetables 
by human beings gives greater food values at less cost 
than is obtained by turning the vegetables into meat 


[75] 


) China’s Challenge to Christianity 


through feeding them to animals. The saving secured in 
the eating of meat by using pork and mutton in place 
of beef has been also demonstrated; this saving receives 
additional value because the pig is a scavenger and will 
eat what oxen and sheep refuse. Chickens also are 
scavengers, eating what oxen and sheep reject, while they 
can add to their menu tidbits like insects and worms. By 
breeding ducks wherever water abounds, the Chinese 
make use of the vegetable growth in the bottoms of shal- 
low ponds which escape the attention of chickens. The 
cycle of economies is fully completed by breeding fish 
wherever watercourses and ponds are found. In some 
regions this is done with as much care as that which is 
taken in the breeding of chickens and ducks. Sometimes 
an extra crop is secured by flooding the land while it is at 
rest during the autumn and winter and breeding fish in 


the waters thereof. Surely the Chinese farmer profits by 


his experience of forty centuries.? 

By means of fertilization, irrigation, and a system of 
crop rotation that is now known to be scientifically sound, 
the cultivated land in China is able to produce between 
two and three crops in each year. For example, winter 


wheat, which is seeded in rows that show a beautiful 


green at the first promise of spring and yield a harvest 


1 The above paragraph is a condensation of the paragraph on 
“Relative Cost and Value of Animal Foods,” in Chapter I, China, 
an Interpretation, by Bishop Bashford. The evidence on which 
Bishop Bashford based his statement is taken from C. G. Hopkins 
(Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture), who gives the result 
of experiments carried on by Cambridge University at Rotham- 
sted, England. The results of these experiments support the 
claims made in Professor F, H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries. 


ee ee ae en a ee 


‘ ers, 


The Rural Majority 


early in June, may be followed by a crop of millet which 
ripens before the hot season is entirely passed, and this 
may be replaced by cabbages or other garden vegetables 
where irrigation can be arranged for. The value of crops 
of beans or clover for maintaining the enduring fertility 
of the soil has been known for centuries to Far Eastern 
farmers, although it is only recently that Western science 
has shown that the value consists in the maintenance of 
soil nitrogen through the process of transformation car- 
ried on by lower organisms living on the roots of these 
leguminous plants. Not only are the legumes grown in 
rotation with other crops for the express purpose of fer- 
tilizing the soil, but in many cases these crops are planted 
in rows between the corn or millet and the two grow to- 
gether, the latter ripening first; leaving all the soil and 
all the sunshine to the former for the remainder of the 
season. In addition to the value as a maintainer of fer- 
tility the leguminous plants frequently yield a crop that 
ripens after the corn crop has been harvested. By sow- 
ing seed in drills or hills the Chinese farmers have econo- 
mized fertilizer by applying it directly to the soil in which 
the seeds are sown, at the same time making possible a 
saving in the labor of cultivation. The Chinese long ago 
developed excellent systems of irrigation, having discov- 
ered the supreme importance of water in crop production. 
One has only to see the extraordinary terraces along the 
hill slopes of Southern China and in many places in the 
North to realize how provision is made to use to the very 
limit every available bit of water-supply. 

An instance of the superiority of the methods worked. 

[77] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


out by the Chinese, in centuries of experience in agri- 
culture and animal husbandry, over the best equipment 
and methods Western science can devise is to be found 
in the incubation of hens’ eggs. The simple Chinese 
method consists of little more apparatus than the family 
kang, or warm sleeping platform. For wholesale use 
special buildings are equipped for the purpose, and thou- 
sands of eggs incubated at the same time. Expert West- 
ern investigators state that the percentage of success 
which the average Chinese incubators secure surpasses 
by several points the best results that have been gained by 
the use of elaborate Western equipment. I can give 
personal testimony, for on one occasion I happened upon 
a great incubating establishment on the very day and 
moment when twelve thousand chicks were appearing. 
Pedlers with baskets were waiting to carry off the chicks 
as soon as they were dried off and steady on their pins 
to peddle them through the countryside. 


To these discoveries through long experience there 
must be added as a favorable factor in Chinese agricul- 
ture the extraordinary patience and industry of the 
people. And it is significant to note that with all their 
industry they maintain a cheerfulness that has been 
remarked by every traveler as well as by those who live 
among them. 

Professor F. H. King, of the University of Wisconsin, 
in whose book, Farmers of Forty Centuries, the whole 
fascinating story of Far Eastern agriculture is to be 
studied, gives these figures to indicate the results which 


[78] 


a 
| 
: 


The Rural Majority 


the Chinese secure from the land they till in comparison 
with the results that are normal in American agriculture: 

“In Shantung Province we talked with a farmer having 
twelve in his family and who kept one donkey, one cow, 
both exclusively laboring animals, and two pigs on two 
and a half acres of cultivated land, where he grew wheat, 
millet, sweet potatoes, and beans. Here is a density of 
population equal to 3,072 people, 256 donkeys, 256 cattle, 
and 512 swine per square mile. In another instance 
where the holding was one and two thirds acres, the 
farmer had ten in his family and was maintaining one 
donkey and one pig, giving to this farm land a mainte- 
nance capacity of 3,840 people, 384 donkeys, and 384 pigs 
to the square mile, or 240 people, 24 donkeys, and 24 pigs 
to one of our forty-acre farms which our farmers regard 
as too small for a single family. The average of seven 
Chinese holdings which we visited and where we obtained 
similar data indicates a maintenance capacity for those 
lands of 1,783 people, 212 cattle or donkeys, and 399 
swine—1,995 consumers and 399 rough food transformers 
per square mile of farm land. These statements for 
China represent strictly rural populations. The rural 
population of the United States in 1900 was placed at 
the rate of sixty-one per square mile of improved farm 
land and there were thirty horses and mules.” 

May not consideration of these matters lead some 
Westerners to realize that in the matter of agriculture 
China may have some points of information that are of 
value? Should we not admit that the highly developed 
farming communities of China are carrying on a tradi- 


[79] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


tion that represents successful methods selected out of 
a long experience of experiments by “trial and error,” 
and that when this tradition is better understood and more 
carefully analyzed, it may be discovered that there is 
much of value which it may contribute for the help of 
brother farmers in other parts of the world? As proof 
that this possibility is being already realized, attention 
may be drawn to the interesting work done by the Bureau 
of Plants of the United States Department of Agriculture 
which has found much of value in the material on Chinese 
farming and the botany of China stored in the great 
imperial encyclopedias. 

In the matter of agriculture, as in other vital human 
interests, there should be anticipated a helpful exchange 
between East and West of those things in which each 
is respectively superior. The West needs to realize that 
the simple Chinese peasant, whom it has tended to look 
down upon if not to despise, has qualities and a practical 
science that may in many points yet teach the West. 


2. Village Life 


A few concrete pictures of community life may make 
it possible to see more clearly the central place which 
rural life has in Chinese experience and to appreciate the 
problems of rural life in relation to which the Christian 
enterprise must be conducted. It must be understood 
that conditions vary in different parts of China. In 
many regions, the rural population lives in villages from 
which they go to their near-by fields for work. Some- 

[80] 


The Rural Majority 


times one finds, as President Butterfield noted, larger 
central villages with a number of satellite hamlets “which 
form essentially social units, true local communities.” 
Conditions of climate and topography create other varia- 
tions. The variety of organization that is to be found is 
well presented in a brief paragraph by the Reverend 
Albert Lutley, Superintendent of the China Inland Mis- 
sion in Shansi: 

“In many parts of Szechwan, as well as some other 
provinces, the farmers do not live together in villages but 
have their homesteads scattered all over the countryside, 
built on their own bit of land. In the provinces of Chihli, 
Shansi, Shensi, and Kansu, the people, on the contrary, 
congregate for mutual protection into villages, many of 
which have high walls and gates. In the province of 
Shansi, each of these villages forms a social, religious, 
and governmental unit, electing its own elders and edu- 
cational committee, appointing its own public servants, 
and levying local taxes for religious and social purposes. 
In this province the individual village is the unit, not the 
group. Conditions, however, vary in every province and 
are seldom uniform throughout the province.” 

The great “clan families” found in some parts of South- 
ern China, where scores of members of one clan are 
housed together in a single group of courts or clan center 
and often under the control of a single patriarch, are a 
unique form of organization that should be noted also. 

Many of the differences in rural organization and in 
the character of the crops are easily noted by the traveler 
who passes through China by rail or by river. Fields 


[81] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


of millet, which fill the fields of the Yellow River plain, 
give place to occasional rice paddies as one crosses the 
low divide into the Yangtze River valley. These in- 
crease as one goes south, and soon the region is reached 
in which rice is altogether prevalent. The ox and ass, 
which are the work animals of the North, are replaced 
by the picturesque water-buffalo, whose almost amphibi- 
ous habits make him the proper “horse-power” for burden 
bearing and for cultivation in regions where fields are 
inundated part of every season. The type of dwelling 
changes also; adobe houses and flat, mud-plastered roofs 
of kaoliang stalks give place to peaked roofs of thatch. 
There are corresponding changes in the tools used. 

But for all the differences, I believe it is still true that 
the general temper or spirit of Chinese rural life is the 
same north or south, east or west. Seasonal festivals and 
ceremonies certainly have general similarity, and, not- 
withstanding the variations in organization, the “family 
system” and the Confucian social habits based on it pre- 
vail everywhere. The cultural heritage on which rural 
life is based is the same for all China. The country folk 
form a united homogeneous whole. But the descriptions 
here given are limited to the village life of North China, 
in the midst of which I was brought up. It would be 
a pleasant task to give a complete and detailed picture 
of the simple, contented, cheerful, wholesome village life, 
but I can touch only a few of the “high” days. 


In all except tiny hamlets that consist of only two or 
three families there is a “Market Day,” the frequency of 


[82] 


The Rural Majority 


which varies directly with the importance of the village. 


It is held every other day in the larger villages—either < 


on the odd or even numbers; for the days are counted, 
not by weeks, but by number—one to twenty-nine, or 
thirty for each moon. In smaller places it may be held 
on each “seven,”—seven, seventeen, twenty-seven,—or, 
more commonly, each “five’—multiples of five. In some 
of the larger county seats there will be a fair every 
day, brought about by a combination of the odd and 
even series. But whenever it comes and whether it be 
more or less frequent, Market Day, with its excited je-nao 
—literally, “heated confusion,’ or “hot time’—is the 
great day in the village life. 

The main street of the hamlet is crowded with the lay- 
out of every genus of pedler, and with country folk who 
have brought all sorts of things for sale or barter. Here 
is the cloth man with his bits of bright-colored, foreign 
fabric, his glass beads for ornament, his gay threads for 
embroidery. Over there the “grain market” forms a 
section of the midway, with beans,—green and yellow, 
white and black,—yellow corn, and red kaoliang. Brown 
wheat and yellow millet show clean and hearty in the, , 
mouths of sacks that might contain Joseph’s cup, for they “ 
are similar to those carried on the backs of the asses 
that bore away from Egypt the grain that saved the lives 
of Jacob’s family. 

Yonder is the ironmonger’s stall, where home-made 
nails and tools can be secured—note particularly his 
farming tools made with real skill and science, particu- 
larly the great ch’u or hoe-plow, the remarkable man- > 


[83] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


power cultivator, a universal tool for the farmers of 
northern Chinese plains. Beyond him is the “candy- 
man” with little stands carried on either end of a long 
pole on his shoulder as he goes from place to place, 
laden with malt candies made in various forms and 
colored lozenges and sticks to delight the eye of children 
—even grown-up children. Who would not speak from 
experience of the joy of choosing how best to spend 
one’s copper, square-holed cash, using a few for brine- 
pickled peanuts and the rest for bits of malt-candy balls 
of wondrous flavor! ‘These latter the expert doctors of 
the great Rockefeller hospital in Peking now tell us are 
the perfect candy, so wholesome, if uncontaminated with 
dust and germs, that no child can eat too much of it. 

Of course there is a bargain-counter for the women 
who come, with their baskets, from neighboring villages, 
to select the sauces, flavors, and tidbits for that part of 
the family menu that cannot be home grown. They must 
also take advantage of Fair Day to lay in their stock of 
cloth and thread for home sewing, bright-colored hair 
strings for the braids of their daughters, and the charm- 
ing gay little hair ornaments with which the women of 
the household are all adorned on festival days, particu- 
larly at New Year’s time when the whole family goes 
calling, 

Of course there are queer odors as well as interesting 
sights. By no means are all of these distasteful to the 
Western olfactories. The itinerant pharmacist has all 
sorts of sweet-smelling herbs and concoctions as well as 
dangerous-looking compounds and unguents. 


[84] 


The Rural Majority 


There are traveling food shops where the hungry 
crowd may stop for a quick lunch of hot soup or nice 
little meat dumplings, or sesame-covered unleavened 
cakes, with the all-pervading tea. Note that tea; it is 
always drunk hot, and undoubtedly the habit of drinking’, 
it so has guarded the Chinese through the centuries from 
many pernicious germs. 

Not all the excitement of market day is concerned 
with shopping. Amusements are also in order. In the 
open space before the village temple there is sure to 
be set up a traveling Punch-and-Judy show. The chil- 
dren watch the process of setting up the little stage just 
as eagerly as American boys and girls turn out to watch 
the circus tent being set up. Students of history will | 
recognize how far back up the stream of Western cul- 
ture we must go to find just the same sort of show; the 
traveling showman working the strings behind the blue 
curtains underneath the cunning little stage where his 
figures present the thrilling stories of “Chu-ke”’ and 
“Tsao Tsao,” the hero and villain of the “Three King- 
doms,” the most romantic period of Chinese history, which 
has furnished material for much of Chinese drama. The 
simplicity of the apparatus and the marvelously lifelike 
movements of the figures astonish the Western observer 
as much as they delight the native audiences. 


Not all the country life is work. Great play days come 
with some of the festivals. ‘These may be of several sorts. 
There are the Calerdar Holidays, “Breaths of the Year,” 
twenty-four of them, which mark the seasons for the 


[85] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


farmer. Their importance as dates for the farmer can 
be seen when one remembers that the traditional calendar 
in China was the lunar, which has such variations that 
every few years a thirteenth moon is added to main- 
tain a correct relationship with the solar dates—equinox 
and solstice. These twenty-four “breaths of the year” 
or solar periods are indicated for the farmer on the 
printed Lunar Calendar which everybody secures at the 
beginning of the new year in order to know how to man- 
age the work in the fields. It gives a time-table for the 
farm work as well as for all other business and play of 
life. The series starts with Li chun, the “establishment 
of spring,” on or about February 5, and goes on through 
“the rains,” “arouse from hibernation,” “vernal equinox,” 
“clear and bright,” “beginning of summer,” “grain in the 
ear,” “slight heat,” “great heat,” “beginning of autumn,” 
and so on until “hoar frost falls’ and “early snow ar- 
tives” just before the “winter solstice’ and “slight 
cold” and “great cold” end the year. Foreign observers 
often speak with astonishment of the regularity with 
which the Chinese weather man brings rain or snow, 
heat or cold, according to the standard calendar date. 
While all of these dates are significant for the farmer’s 
life and work, not all of them can be counted as rural 
holidays. “Clear and bright” (first week in April) is a 
great festival, when throughout China each family ceases 
regular work to put in order the private cemetery, to 
present offerings to the dead, and to have a family 
party. Ina very happy way the family on earth reminds 
itself of those who have passed on, and feels a closer 
[86] 


Eee — ee oe 


The Rural Majority 


connection with them through the solemn offering of 
food. 

The first and fifteenth of each moon receive special » 
attention in almost every family, if not every month, at 
least with a fair degree of frequency, for these are dates 
on which special offerings may be made to the tablets of 
the departed in the home or the temples visited. All 
over China the greatest holidays of the year are three: | 
the time of the Lunar New Year at the end of January ; 
the Dragon Boat Festival early in June; and the Feast 
of Lanterns or “harvest moon” in August or September. 
In addition to special feasting and leisure, these times 
have a pleasant or unpleasant financial significance, as 
one is paid or pays his debts, for these are the dates for 
official closing of accounts. The New Year is the most 
important of all, and the holiday fortnight which the 
nation takes at that time seems to make up in part for 
the lack of regular rest-days throughout the year. 


One other type of holiday which is of social and finan- 
cial importance in the rural life is found in the great 
Temple Fairs. Confucian temples are found in the 
“county towns.” Services in these come regularly and 
are a part of official life. But throughout the country- 
side, sometimes near the larger towns, sometimes in build- 
ings quite independent of any other group, are found the 
Buddhist or Taoist temples. Each temple has its own 
special holiday at some time during each year, for which 
two to five days are set apart. The temple courts and 
buildings are cleaned and furnished for the occasion in 


[87] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


special fashion, and the authorities prepare piles of fresh 


incense to be sold to worshipers. The close connection 


of the drama with religion is seen in the fact that a 
theater platform in most cases stands opposite the main 
entrance of the temple. Outside the temple on the days 
of festivity the crowd would remind you of the market- 
day crowds. Much of barter and business is carried on, 
but there is a feature of gayety that distinguishes the 
Temple Fair, and many of the pedlers offer toys and 
trinkets instead of useful wares. 

These are the days when the women and girls of the 
entire neighborhood come out of the seclusion of the 
home courtyard and are loaded into the big farm cart, 
which has been especially cleaned for the occasion and 
padded with a quilt or two, and are driven by father 
and the boys to see and share in the excitement of the 
throng of thousands that so enjoy seeing and being seen. 
They gather for these occasions to burn incense, attend 
the theater, see the sights,—which include in these modern 
days a makeshift portable moving picture apparatus, litho- 
graphs showing the world’s great rulers and scenes from 
Western life,—to mingle with the crowd, and to purchase 
the trinkets which every holiday crowd the world over 
insists on having to take home as souvenirs. 

One would like to know what these women and chil- 
dren think and say as they look out on a world so much 
larger than the home courtyard, and as they exchange 
with relatives and friends from distant villages news 
and gossip. 


On one of these days you can see the whole com- 


[88] 


Bd 


The Rural Majority 


munity and note the variety of its life. The abbot of 
the monastery that furnishes the occasion for the Fair 
may be giving a dinner to the literati of the neighbor- 
hood. Among his guests there may be the gentleman 
whose ancestral estates are in a near-by village, and whose 
family resides there while he himself may be off in gov- 
ernment service as a high official in some distant province. 
Very often one finds the homes of distinguished scholars 
near or in the simplest sort of rural village. In addition 
to the scholars of the neighborhood, the abbot’s party 
will include the chief business men of “Main Street,” 
members of the Chamber of Commerce of the county 
seat, and officers of the “association” which guards and 
controls so much of the village and small-town life. In 
these modern times the local police officer, appointed by 
the provincial governor, may also be present. It is very 
difficult to unravel the relationships between the local 
officials so as to determine the exact boundaries be- 
tween village and county, province and national authority. 
For the most part the various officials do not conflict 
seriously with each other. Certainly one gets the im- 
pression as one meets these men, as I have done on oc- 
casion when a friendly abbot included me in his invitation 
list, that democracy very largely prevails, a simple modifi- 
cation of the system of control by the “elders” of the 
hamlet, village, or neighborhood, which may be called 
the unit of Chinese political life. In not a few com-. 
munities the Christian preacher might often be included 
in the group of “substantial” men of the region. Cer- 
tainly in his outlook on national and world affairs and his 


[89] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


general information he surpasses most of his neighbors. 
The dignitaries who. pass through the crowd into the 
temple courts for their meal rub shoulders with “all sorts 
and conditions of men” who make up the throng. There 
is a fine democracy about these crowds; no sycophancy 
is to be seen in their attitude toward those who are wealth- 
ier or better educated. Good, upstanding folk, self-re- 
specting, self-reliant. In the theater there may be a few 
boxes for special guests, but most of the crowd simply 
takes standing room, because seats are never provided, and 
the beggar may be next to the merchant or scholar. 

The great throngs are always eager to listen to almost 
any sort of speaker. Since the establishment of the 
Chinese Republic, organized bands of student lecturers 
have made use of these ready-made audiences for present- 
ing lectures on almost every phase of China’s modern 
life. Some of the topics discussed on such occasions have 
been: What democracy means; The duties of a citizen in 
a republic; The need for popular education; The libera- 
tion of women; China’s economic need; Public morals; 
Sanitation; China’s foreign problems. The devotion and 
energy of the young, social, patriotic preachers has been 
admirable, many of them denying themselves the leisure 
of vacation days in order to do this service to their 
people and their country. The students won support for 
their anti-Japanese boycott in 1919 by appealing to the 
country folk, as well as by their street lecturing in towns. 

You will often find among the shows on “Midway” 
at a temple fair a large tent in which Christian preachers 
present their message. Generally it will be crowded with 


[90] 


The Rural Majority 


an all-day audience where a band of invited speakers 
from a distance will assist the local pastor and his staff 
in giving the message to all who come. Generally there 
will be a separate tent or a special courtyard set aside for 
preaching to women. In the missionary experience of 
China there is repeated evidence of the rich fruitage that 
has come from the sowing carried on by preaching and 
conversation at these Temple Fairs. 


Well! what do you think of the country folk of China? 
You are told, and rightly, that most of them cannot 
read and write. But as you look into the faces of the 
great crowds on Market Day or at Temple Fairs, you 
will certainly feel that in spite of their ignorance they are 
intelligent and have sound common sense. The cheer- 
fulness of the crowd will impress you too, and its reason- 
ableness, for it practically manages itself without any 
great amount of police supervision. There is no serious 
jostling or crowding, and good nature characterizes all of 
its moods. 

The fair breaks up and the people stream home, some 
of them, to be sure, on donkeys or in carts, but the 
great majority on foot, walking miles along the narrow 
paths beside the rutted roads which many passing feet 
have worn smooth and hard. In friendly fashion these 
pedestrians chat and visit as they walk. Now and again 
you will hear snatches of the “opera” which has just been 
heard at the fair, sung in the characteristic high falsetto, 
but with real zest and good cheer. Home they go, a folk 
reasonable in spirit, orderly and law abiding by habit, 


[or] 


Pea SPL eA Uae RNNRN WATS MEU ARNGD RPA NUON AON PC Nill YU, 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 
eS 
cheerful, contented. Back to the fields they go, for 
months before another holiday will come around, to take 
up with astonishing industry the enormous toil of tilling 
with their own labor, and that of a few beasts, small plots 
of land that yield a bare living to the family. And yet 
from sunrise, when the men of the household go off to 
the fields with hoe or beasts and plow and the women tum 
to home tasks with spinning wheel and needle or at the 
kitchen range, until the late return of the husbandman as 
the shadows fall and the evening meal at home, there is a 
general cheerfulness throughout the working day. Songs 
and genial cries mark much of the labor. Surely there 
is in the vast farm population of China a reservoir of 
sound human energy. An American observer qualified 
to speak with authority has said of the Chinese that they 
are a people marked by industry, cheerfulness, reasonable- 
ness, and love of peace. He said further, “These are 
great qualities. The race that has them is a great race. 
No one need be discouraged about the future of the 
Chinese people.” 

In the past the Chinese have drawn steadily from 
the rural store of human energy for much of their leader- 
ship. Just as every American boy may dream of the 
possibility of becoming president of the United States, 
so every Chinese lad has dreamed of being gazetted 
as “Optimus” of the Hanlin group. Whether he come 
from a home of refinement or culture with a long 
heritage bequeathed by scholarly ancestors or whether 
he lives in a humble courtyard with no family history 
outside the “Annals of the Poor,” he could dream 


[92] 


The Rural Majority 


of the possibility of proving his merit in the literary 
examinations of the civil service system. From a modern 
point of view there may be much to criticize in this old 
literary examination system, established in the T’ang 
Dynasty in 763 a.D.; but it is certain that however defec- 
tive it was in some respects, it really made literary culture 
the only passport to officialdom, so that on the whole 
China was selecting her ablest thinkers to be her rulers, 
The Chinese boy in his earliest school-days learned story 
after story of lads from the poorest homes in the most 
isolated places who made good use of limited oppor- 
tunities for study, overcoming all sorts of obstacles, 
proving their brilliant ability by successful examination, 
and becoming eventually important governors or prime 
ministers. And it is certain that Chinese culture and 
statecraft have been enriched through all the generations 
by the social democracy fostered by the examination 
system, through which ability could more easily than in 
most societies find its way to recognition and influence. 
Another interesting social device that Chinese genius 
worked out was one which guarded against tendencies 
toward class distinctions and aristocracy. The man of 
distinguished ability who received recognition and honor 
from the state would usually be given one of five grades 
of noble rank, his immediate ancestors frequently re- 
ceiving at the same time posthumous honors. A pro- 
vision was made, however, by which the son of an en- 
nobled father could inherit only the rank one step below 
that won by his father’s ability, and each succeeding gen- 
eration would be demoted one stage in rank, so that in 


[93] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


five generations the descendants of a distinguished man 
would have become commoners again. Of course, any 
scion of the family, who by his own ability performed 
unusual service to the state, might be lifted to the original 
rank or even higher. This provision, coupled with the 
absence of any recognition of primogeniture, has given 
to China’s society a democratic character that has saved 
it from the evils of caste and of a hereditary aristocracy. 
To be sure, the literati—the scholars and thinkers—of 
China have constituted an aristocracy of intellect, but 
theirs has never been an exclusive group. Their mem- 
bership has always been recruited from every class in 
society, wherever and whenever ability was revealed. 

Westerners make much of the high percentage of 
illiteracy in China, but it is well to remember that even 
in the most ignorant homes there is appreciation of intel- 
lectual ability and a perennial hope that some member 
of the family will show talent and enter upon the path- 
way to advancement. 


It is fair to ask, is this, after all, a true picture of 
China’s country life? Can one disregard the dark 
shadows? Certainly the shadows are there, dark and 
dismal shadows. ‘The pathetic poverty of millions of 
homes, the heavy bondage of crass ignorance, fearsome 
superstitions, and unreasonable customs. ‘There are the 
horrible probabilities of flood and famine in countless 
regions of China, There is the burden of lifeless reli- 
gious leadership. Individuality cannot be generally 
encouraged, because it would upset too many of the 

[94] 


The Rural Majority 


conditions which are necessary for the existence of the 
whole group. 

Perhaps the worst condition of all is found in the 
crowdedness of Chinese life. Overpopulation creates 
much of the strain of toil and poverty under which the 
Chinese masses labor. The struggle for mere existence is 
bitter. In many large areas the increase of the family 
by one child might mean intolerable poverty and suffering. 

No race in history has had such a colossal struggle with 
Nature as have the Chinese. The dykes of the Zuyder 
Zee are as nothing compared with the dykes of China 
for holding back the floods. Even today, in the gorges 
of the Yangtze the water will rise a vertical height of 
over a hundred feet in three days. 

Farmers are often the victims of grain purchasers to 
whom they mortgage their future crops. For such loans 
they may have to pay from forty to fifty per cent. Mil- 
lions of country children, in spite of thrift and the pres- 
ence of food on the farm, are undernourished and show 
a considerable and rapid improvement when brought to 
mission schools where they are given a simple but ade- 
quate diet. 

It is true that in spite of considerable practical knowl- 
edge of farming and of simple social habits, the Chinese 
farmer is otherwise densely ignorant. His mental con- 
tent is practically the same as it was three thousand 
years ago. Contrast this with the advance in farm life 
in America made in one generation, and it is easy to 
see that the American farmer has an outlook upon life 
incomparably superior to that of the Chinese farmer. 


[95] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


For months after the Republic was set up in China, 
millions of farmers did not know there was a Republic, 
and millions of them today could not distinguish between 
a monarchy and a republic, even in theory. Their con- 
tentment is partly based upon the conviction that “thus it 
has always been and thus it always will be.’ Remarkably 
informed as to their local tasks, they are ignorant of 
county, provincial, and national issues, with the result 
that their morale is unable to affect the political life of 
the nation. They are not concerned with what kind of 
government there is so long as it is just. But when it 
is unjust, they are unable to perceive the reason or to 
aid in removing political injustice. Unless goaded to 
desperation, they do not resist, and it is this larger 
margin of safety for the grafter that aids corruption in 
government. 

The life of the farmer is also filled with superstitious 
fears. He retains much of the animism of ancient 
times. All material objects have within them a presiding 
spirit. The whole universe has been peopled by spirits 
and demons, and one must exercise himself to buy 
charms and prayers that may have the power to offset 
the dangers that constantly portend. 

While theoretically the farmer in China is placed 
second only to the scholar, in practise the plums of exist- 
ence belong to the official, the scholar, and to the mer- 
chant, the poor farmer getting the tail end of mental and 
economic existence. There are many large areas where 
constant thrift and economy will maintain but a meager 
existence with little or no hope of improvement. There 


[96] 


The Rural Majority 


are also parts of China where, by thrift and economy, 
the farmer can improve his condition and the condition 
of his family in a single generation. But without cor- 
responding influences to elevate his lot, a mere improve- 
ment of his economic condition does not improve him 
otherwise, but may even degrade him. I know of one 
small area not far from Shanghai where the soil is un- 
usually productive. The lot of the farmer here is much 
easier than that of farmers elsewhere in the province. 
The result is that in this area there is much more than 
the usual amount of drinking, gambling, and loose living. 


The social condition of the women in rural China de- 
mands consideration. They have, as a matter of fact, a 
higher status than is ordinarily credited to them. When 
newly wed, the mother-in-law is supreme over the wife 
and her husband. Often the wife suffers more from the 
exactions of her mother-in-law than from her husband. 
A number of medical missionaries in China have testified 
to the fact that they have been called far more often to 
administer emetics to young wives who took opium to 
escape from their mothers-in-law rather than from their 
husbands. Their lot is definitely fixed for them, they may 
accept it stoically and even cheerfully, but the experiences 
of life are hard on them. 

But it is possible for the bride to dcpimiieene her quali- 
ties and gradually to show her worth. When this demon- 
stration has been made, she is often accorded recognition. 
The demonstration is two-fold. There must be faithful 
and efficient service in the home, and there should also be 


L97] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


motherhood. Chinese literature is full of references to 
the love and affection of a son for his mother. Sons 
will wait night and day on a sick and aged mother and 
reverence and comfort her in her failing years. 

There is a widespread belief among Chinese women, 
for which Taoism is responsible, that if a woman dies in 
childbirth, the spirits are angry with her and perhaps are 
punishing her for some former misdeed. Her spirit is 
then plunged into a dark portion of hell specially re- 
served for her kind, there to suffer until prayers are said 
for her release. Her hair is cut off, her shoes are re- 
moved and together set up with some paper dummy 
clothing under a temple bell while the bell is being tolled 
and incense is burned for her release from the tortures 
of the lower world. 


Of all these things many writers have told you. There 
as a dark side to Chinese country life, but I still believe 
that my own childhood impressions are true to fact, and 
that in spite of the shadows, the spirit of China’s rural 
life is comparatively bright, cheerful, and wholesome. 

Is this store of human energy being released from 
the bondage of ignorance and superstition for use in the 
larger and enriched life that will mean a greater develop- 
ment of all the resources of the Chinese people and the 
| real reenforcement of human values among Westerners 
and throughout world-life as well? Or are the majority 
of Chinese to be handed over to newer types of drudgery 
which in addition to a burden of toil add cares that steal 

[98] 


The Rural Majority 


oe 


away the good cheer and outstanding manliness that have 
stood out successfully against the moral strain and physi- 
cal weariness of centuries of hard work? China’s place 
in the world life of tomorrow depends on the answer. 

This, then, constitutes a great challenge to Christendom. 
If the economic lot of the farmer and the social condi-’ 
tion of women is to be improved, their mental and spir- 
itual horizon must be extended; otherwise, particularly 
in the case of the farmer, there may result a serious 
deterioration of the race. How often this has been in 
evidence in our own country! There are communities 
and families where we have a larger measure of freedom, 
better economic conditions, and more license and de- 
terioration of family stock,—all because we have lost the 
moral and religious convictions that give fiber to the race. 

Can Buddhism save the farmers of China when they 
get more freedom and better economic conditions? It 
assumes that the ideal life is that of an ascetic, and it 
discounts normal human relationships. The life of a 
farmer is that of normal relationships. His kind of life 
being at a discount, he cannot maintain the highest self- 
respect and personal development. 

The Taoism of today puts him in a world of spirits 
to be placated, and when he is released from his fear 
of them, he is likely to lose his self-restraint. 

Confucianism is a lofty political and social system 
which has been successful in guiding the Chinese people 
through centuries of continuous life. But it has glorified 
the past and made life too static. It looks upon life as a 


[99] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


great and sacred stream into which we are born. The 
justification of our existence is determined by the con- 
tribution we make to that sacred stream. This concep- 
tion gives to social and political relationships a sanctity. 
The individual takes his proper place and as such is 
subordinated to the larger whole. Confucianism is op- 
posed to our cheap American ideas of individualism. But 
in China it has hitherto tried to maintain unsullied and 
unchanged the traditions of the past. It has not looked 
to a future of expanding ideas. 

Where the rural life of China, the men and women at 
their daily toil, has responded to the story of Jesus of 
Nazareth and the impact of His personality, a new species 
is created, more radiant and inspiring than anything seen 
in the rural products of the past. Christianity may in all 
due respects conserve the good there is in China’s past 
and on these foundations build up personalities more 
radiant, intelligent, and creative. This fact is easily evi- 
denced to those who can take the time to travel in the 
rural districts of China, visiting Christian homes in 
Christian communities. There one will see individual 
initiative, happy homes, and happy faces such as are 
not commonly found elsewhere. Not long ago a high 
official in Peking, noticing that some of his friends had 
exceptionally happy homes, decided to study the cause. 
He was an agnostic. He found that the homes that com- 
pelled his admiration were without exception the homes 
of Christian men and women, and for this reason alone 
he himself became a Christian. 


[100] 


A IIS RON Ala ERNE A A GG OS BEN RM 
The Rural Majority 
2 BES STA 9 2022), PA A RD TORE AD NN I Ra 


3. Agricultural Christianity 


President Butterfield is right when he stresses the stu- 
pendous fact that China has three hundred million 
farmers, and notes the challenge which this fact presents 
to the Christian Church. Christian forces from the 
beginning of Roman Catholic missions to the present 
time have been conscious of this challenge and have 
endeavored to meet it. It is true that most mission sta- 
tions and church centers are found in the cities, large 
or small, but this is because the cities are “usually the 
most convenient centers from which to work the sur- 
rounding country.” In the regions which I know per- 
sonally the majority of the Protestant Christians come 
from the country. I believe my own observation is 
typical of most Christian centers in China. Superintend- 
ent Lutley of the China Inland Mission of Shansi, 
writes: “In the province of Shansi, considerably less than 
one tenth of the church membership is to be found in 
the cities, and there are at least five places of worship 
in the towns and villages for every one in a city.” Only 
in recent years has it been possible to develop a real city 
work in which not only are the buildings located on city 
streets, but those who come to use the buildings are really 
city folk. 

Chinese Christian workers and Westerners alike are 
beginning to realize clearly that there can be no chance 
for Christianity in China unless the gospel is presented 
so as to win the country folk. The Chinese people gen- 
erally will not be led into the richer and more abundant 


[ror] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


life of discipleship with Jesus by means of urban work 
merely or by a presentation of the Christian message 
adapted to the specific needs of student groups and 
modern intelligentsia. Only as centers of Christian life 
and grace and truth are multiplied throughout the coun- 
tryside and methods are adjusted to the definite needs 
of country life will the masses of China find salvation in 
Christ. The call for service for “China’s miilions” is as 
strong today as it was when Hudson Taylor started the 
China Inland Mission and organized bands of workers 
to penetrate into the most isolated interior regions of the 
country. 

But Christian service for rural China must be much 
more than the visitation of itinerant preachers. Mes- 
sengers must be sent to live with the country folk, to 
understand their life, to establish schools, to enter into 
the problems of husbandry and farming, to inspire re- 
generated individuality, and to organize social life for 
richer experience and expanding development. The 
schools must not be merely a means by which to select 
the most capable boys and girls, and to guide them into 
an advanced training in school or college that will prepare 
for service in the cities. A Christian training is needed 
for school children, and adults as well, that will both open 
their minds to the rich world of new ideas and new 
methods and prepare them also for the specific tasks of 
country community life. The Christian preacher needs to 
minister to the farmer, not only spiritually, but agricul- 
turally also. 

President Butterfield has proposed that foreign mis- 

[102] 


ali CTL 9 SSA ce li ACU a CREDA 
The Rural Majority 


sionaries for rural work should have as part of their 
regular preparation some training in agriculture, “gain- 
ing at least a broad view of the main considerations — 
underlying the problem of better farming, better farm 
business, and better farm life.” The mission boards 
are already beginning to realize that “agricultural mis- 
| sions” form a division of the foreign service equal in 
| importance, in the necessity for the special training of © 
candidates for its service, to the educational, medical, 
literary, and preaching ministries which have been rec- 
ognized for many years. There is already an association © 
| of agricultural missions that meets annually, at which 
| Christian leaders consider the relation of Christianity to 
rural problems the world over. 

Westerners may well be chary, as Superintendent 
Lutley suggests, of giving advice to the hard-headed 
farmers of the highly developed agricultural communi- 
ties.in China, but there is no question that much help 
can be conveyed from agricultural experts, “who have 
made a special study of the climate, soils, possible local 
fertilizers, insect pests, and other conditions prevailing in 
different parts of China, and who could render valuable 
help to the Christian farmers and the people generally 
by the dissemination of reliable information, and by train- 
ing a number of Chinese Christians in scientific methods 
of agriculture, who would be able and willing to pass on 
their knowledge to others, and could demonstrate to the 
farmers of their district the practical superiority and 
benefits of the methods they taught.” 

It may well be questioned whether many such experts — 


[103] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


peHe be SR Christian universities of China 
were among the first to make provision for scientific 
: Poay of agricultural problems in China and for the 
_ training of Chinese to carry to the farmers the help which 
_ science can give them. The School of Agriculture and 
_ Forestry of the University of Nanking and the work 
done in the same line by Canton Christian College have 
had notable success already in these lines. Everyone 
should read the fascinating story of the service rendered 
to the Kwangtung silk industry by the scientists of 
Canton Christian Colleget The college authorities by 
patient demonstration have convinced the country folk 
that the sheets of healthy silk-worm eggs which they sell 
at a cost five times that of the unselected eggs sold in 
the old-fashioned way produce worms from which more 
silk of better quality can be secured. The entire silk 
industry in the province is being revivified by these ef- 
forts. Of course, the economic effect upon the country 
population as well as upon the silk business at the port of 
export is significant. 


The home industries of the Chinese countryside pre- 
sent a fascinating field for scientific study and invention. 
For example, in the region of Kao I in Chihli Province, 
the cloth gild in a recent year reported a business in 
cotton cloth of twenty million silver dollars. This dis- 
trict grew the cotton and wove the cloth. The work was 


1“The Sericulture Industry of South China,” by C. W. How- 
ard. Canton Christian College, 18 East 41st ‘Street, New York 
City. 25 cents. 
[104] 


A NEW BUDDHIST TEMPLE 


This temple is under construction at Soochow. While Bud- 
dhism itself has lost much of its original vitality, a real 
revival seems to be going on within it. In many of the large 
cities old temples are being repaired and new ones built. 


reso 


BEC ERS moth 


Pirgherge 
RAS ATA 
Pe ‘ aye 5 
: eee SAS SAM. 


Ptah TS oatutarene is: 


* path : 


FRAT AN 
* aN ‘€ 


hich 


ies Ww 


oO 
> 


a Se ae 


See etn: 


A CEREMONY IN A TAOIST TEMPLE 
ler that the deceased may be properly provided with servants in 


Back of the head priest, in the center, are the paper effi 


VETTE Nine 


e burned 


) 


Someone has died. 
ire to | 
the world of spirits. 


e 
c 


The Rural Majority 


done on the countless hand-looms of a modern type which 
are to be found in almost every home in that region. But 
the whole process of production could not be carried on 
in China; for although the Chinese can comb and spin 
their cotton, they cannot produce cotton yarn fast enough 
or of a quality suitable for use in modern-type looms. 
As a consequence, the whole cotton crop of the district 
is exported to Japan where it is spun into thread by 
machinery and re-imported to China to be used for weav- 
ing. I have friends—probably others, too, are at work— 
who are now trying to invent machinery that will be suit- 
able for cotton making and carding and for spinning, and 
that can be worked by hand, foot, or animal power in 
the homes of the people. This is in order that all the 
processes involved in cotton industries may be carried 
on in the region where cotton is grown and in the homes 
of the people. The invention of such machines would 
reserve for this district the value that is lost by trans- 
portation of their product to Japan and back, would im- 
prove their economic position, and, by making it possible 
to keep cotton spinning and weaving a home industry, 
would guard against the necessity and danger of introduc- 
ing a factory system of production. 

For centuries the Chinese have known the value of 
vegetable oils. By means of crude processes they have 
produced great quantities of these oils from a variety 
of sources: beans, sesamum, peanuts, cotton-seed, etc. 
These oils are fundamental to the Chinese dietary in 
country and city alike. The invention of cheap oil 
presses, based on scientific principles, and the introduc- 

[105 ] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


tion of methods of refinement that could be used in the 
homes would make possible the development of a great 
industry in this field, the result of which would be eco- 
nomic improvement, a possibility of a higher standard of 
living, and an opportunity for larger export. 

These suggestions indicate the possibilities. Has Chris- 
tianity no responsibility in the matter? Up to the present 
time Christian foreigners and Christian Chinese are more 
concerned about these problems in Chinese life than any 
other group in the country. The centers for Christian 
work in the Chinese countryside have already undertaken 
tasks in education for the children, lectures and other 
methods for adult education, the support of measures for 
public health, experiments in introducing new fruits and 
grains, in seed selection, and the general advancement of 
public welfare. Reenforcement of the efforts already 
taken in these lines, making use of the experiments in 
rural improvement being carried on in England, Amer- 
/ ica, and elsewhere in the West, would make it possible 
_ greatly to increase the effect of the gospel of individual 
\ regeneration and social salvation which it is the task of | 
'\Christian missions to present. 

The writer has had visits from prominent Chinese 
gentry offering expensive ancestral halls if only he could 
furnish some men who might be suited to undertake the 
task of school and community work under Christian 
auspices. Plants for community work developed along 
Chinese lines and modeled somewhat after their ancestral . 
homes and temple groups would make the country folk 
feel at home and would win the financial support of the 

[106 | 


The Rural Majority 


well-to-do people. The equipment would demonstrate 
the two great principles of religion stated by Christ, 
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” and “Thou 
‘shalt love the Lord thy God.” On these two principles 
the church can take a bold stand and count on happy 
cooperation from the local community. 

It would be a magnificent project if individuals, church 
groups, and agricultural and industrial schools in North 
America were to cooperate in initiating a definite local 
program in some Chinese community and perform it in 
such a thorough, whole-hearted manner and with such a 
spirit of devotion and of faith that the work itself should 
become indigenous and the community be uplifted. Chris- 
tian homes would be established, economic effort would 
become reasonable, the people would become more intelli- 
gent in the things that concern their community life, and 
the spirit of faith, hope, and charity would prevail. 
Neighboring communities would feel the influence and 
everywhere it would be recognized that the motive power 
that inspired these new conditions was the person of 
Jesus, who taught men thus to love one another. 
| & The chance for Christianity in China depends very 
largely on whether or not Christian imagination and de- 
' votion can focus upon the problems of China’s rural life 
and offer definite, concrete, and practical plans for the 
} solution of them. 


[107] 


IV 
Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, 
Seem here no painful inch to gain, 

Far back, through creeks and inlets making, 
Comes silent, flooding in, the main. 


These lines of Arthur Hugh Clough have doubtless 
brought to every one of us a thrill of remembrance as 
they revive some seaside experience when the first signs 
of an incoming tide, stimulated into action by cosmic 
forces, reveal the promise of irresistible energy fed by 
the resources of an inexhaustible ocean. 

To those who read the ideograms seme , Hsin Ch’ao 
brings just such a thrill, for the character ch’ao is 
formed from water and dawn, and carries the notion of 
the waters that return early every morning from the 
sea, while Asin reenforces the idea of freshness ot new- 
ness. Instead of Matthew Arnold’s “melancholy long 
withdrawing roar” of an outgoing tide, you get the pic- 
ture of the sea about to flood in again upon the land. It 
is a scene at the seashore; beyond the emptied beach 
the headlands stand veiled in morning mists; from afar 
there come the first ripples of inflowing tides; you know 
nothing can stop that flow until it becomes full flood- 
tide, until it shall have accomplished its cosmic purpose. 

The intellectual leaders of China today, who have given 
the name Hsin Ch’ao to their movement, have seen such 
a vision, They believe that they can see the signs of a 

[ 108} 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


new flood tide in the creative spirit of their race, a “new 
tide” that brings the “promise and potency” of a fresh 
fertility to revive and enrich, not only the intellectual 
and spiritual forces of their own people—forces which 
for so long a time have seemed to be at the ebb—but to 
offer enrichment to other peoples and the world as well. 
Whether the leaders of the Hsin Ch’ao are justified in 
their ardent hopes or not, the movement is clearly the 
most significant among the various currents and cross- 
currents that mark China’s intellectual life at the present 
day. It will be our task in the present chapter to study 
the outstanding tendencies that mark these movements 
in China today, to examine the new tide and to estimate 
its significance for the future as well as for the present. 
In particular, we must consider the relation of the Chris- 
tian enterprise in China to these intellectual movements, 
For it is clear that no presentation of Christianity can be 
as effective as it should be unless its leaders understand 
the point of view, and the temper, the plans, and pur- 
poses of China’s intellectual leaders today. 


1. Older Tides in China’s Heritage 


In order to understand present intellectual currents in 
China it is necessary to remind ourselves briefly of the 
characteristics that have marked the older tides in their 
ebb and flow throughout the cultural history of the 
Chinese. 

Most Westerners have a notion that the current of 
Chinese cultural life reached its high point centuries ago 

[109] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


and since then has ebbed steadily. Many go so far as 
to believe that a process of real degeneration has already 
set in. Some Westerners at the present time endeavor 
to support their theory of the supremacy of the white, 
and in particular the “Nordic” race, by showing how 
static, fixed, or diminishing are the powers and capacities 
of other races, in particular those of darker pigment in 
the Orient and Africa. An exact study of Chinese cul- 
tural heritage presents clear and convincing disproof of 
any such theory. One has only to visit the museum in 
the splendid imperial halls of the once “Forbidden Pal- 
ace” in Peking to be disabused of all such notions. Ina 
palace that is itself an expression of the artistic spirit of 
the culture which its collections represent are gathered 
examples of old bronzes, porcelains, paintings, and other 
productions of Chinese art. Undoubtedly the museum 
would be very much richer in treasures had it not been 
for the punitive expeditions and destructive vandalism of 
Western nations. The cupidity and corruption of mod- 
ern Chinese officials of State has further impoverished 
the collections. But enough remnants are exhibited to 
present in chronological arrangement a vivid story of 
Chinese creative and artistic life. A recent writer says: 

“Great artistic impulses which rose to magnificent ex- 
pression in one dynasty die down and disappear only to 
break forth again with still richer power two or three 
centuries afterwards. These resurrections and incre- 
ments of power, with results in some forms such as the 
‘Nordic’ race has never produced, are due to one or the 


[110] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


other of two causes, both of which disprove the theory 
of racial immobility. Either they are due to the dying 
down and then the awakening again of latent racial ca- 
pacity or they come from the impulse of some race amal- 
gamation.” + 

Professor F. W. Williams of Yale adds an illuminating 
comment : 

“As to decadence, no nation in history appears at its 
best in art or learning for many generations at a time. 
When we recall the fact that Greece was great for only 
two centuries and Rome for never more than two cen- 
turies at a time, with spasms of degeneracy between, 
China’s record does not appear to be peculiar. One finds 
sudden culmination followed by imitation and loss of 
Originality everywhere in recorded history. The details 
of this process are interesting and would be worth fol- 
lowing ; e.g., why does architecture always precede sculp- 
ture and painting in a revival of the arts—to give place 
usually to poetry and criticism and philosophy? But this 
inquiry leads us away from our main thesis. I believe 
one will discover in any great museum in the world evi- 
dence that ‘race capacity and achievement does not neces- 
sarily move along a slow and orderly gradient, either 
down or up, but is liable to great convulsions, to sudden 
collapses, or to equally sudden resurrections.’ ” ? 

A graph prepared to show the fluctuations of the crea- 
tive impulse of the Chinese as expressed in literature and 


1 Robert E. Speer, Race and Race Relations. 
2 Quoted by Robert E. ont in ag and Race Relations. 
III 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


philosophy, would show as clearly as the evidence in the 
Peking museum that there has been great fluctuation in 
these lines also. This is not the place in which to tell 
the whole story of the rise and fall of creative activity 
in China. It will be enough to name the dynasties that 
have been marked by great achievement. The Chou 
Dynasty (B.c. 1122-255) is the period of beginnings. The 
sixth century B.c. in China, as well as in Greece, is 
marked by a galaxy of great thinkers—Lao-Tzu, K’ung- 
Tzu (Confucius), and Moh-Tzu. The three streams of 
thinking which these masters originated were developed 
by disciples during the next centuries, schools were de- 
veloped that contended with each other for the principles 
and philosophies they believed in as earnestly as did the 
princes and dukes of that feudal period in the wars of 
“The Contending States.” 

The first seasons of bud and bloom—the earliest spring 
and summer of Chinese life—were followed by autumnal 
quiet in the days of Han (3.c. 206-a.p. 221) and a darker 
winter of hibernation thereafter. A fresh burst of crea- 
tive ability appears in the spacious days of T’ang (AD. 
618-906), a time at which Chinese energies seem at the 
peak in almost every line of development. As H. G. 
Wells says: 

“Millions of people were leading orderly, graceful, and 
kindly lives in China during these centuries (seventh, 
eighth, and ninth) when the attenuated populations of 
Europe and Western Asia were living in either hovels, 
small walled cities, or grim robber fortresses. While 
the mind of the West was black with theological obses- 


[x12] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


sions, the mind of China was open and tolerant and 
inquiring.” + 

Without question, the China of those days was the 
most cultivated and powerful nation of the world. The 
poetry and painting of T’ang are unsurpassed. Indeed, 
Japan received her art, literature, and religion from the 
T’ang China. T’ang culture was a source of inspiration 
for the whole of Far Eastern Asia and still is such. And 
today Westerners who have discovered it, have just begun 
to draw from T’ang China creative inspiration for modern 
work. 

It is not well to press the metaphor too far, but one 
may note that the new springtime of Chinese life in the 
days of T’ang was again followed by an “autumn” period 
of quiet development and perhaps by a winter’s sleep in 
which the life force of the nation has been, not dying, 
but recuperating for the fresh burst of creative achieve- 
ment which seems already to be burgeoning. Certainly 
the creative achievements in philosophy and art, which 
have expressed the characteristic spirit of Chinese cul- — 
ture, have produced a people of a strong character in 
which industry, cheerfulness, reasonableness, and love of 
peace—qualities envied by all mankind—are dominant 
elements. 

As will be noted later, one of the outstanding char- 
acteristics of the New Tide today is a renewed study of 
the old culture in an effort to recover the essential roots 
of its vitality. 

Through all this long history of culture, the supreme 

1 Wells, A Short History of the World. 

[113] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


place has been given to education and literary ability. 
The phrase Shih Nung Kung Shang—scholar, farmer, 
artisan, merchant—represents the proverbial, popular 
classification of the professions and is a phrase often 
quoted by Western writers. The long-established Civil 
Service examinations based on literary ability helped the 
government to secure for the lower as well as the higher 
posts men of intellectual and literary ability. It has been 
truly said that China has been governed by her thinkers. 
The literary and philosophical ability of the long line of 
scholar-statesmen and administrators of China is matched 
only infrequently in Western history. 

There is no debate in China regarding the importance 
of education. Every class of people is convinced of the 
need for it, and is ready and eager to take advantage of 
educational opportunities wherever financial difficulties in 
the way of making use of them can be overcome. The 
new systems of education which have been instituted by 
successive governments—Manchu and Republican—since 
1906, when the old system of civil service examinations 
was abolished, have been welcomed by the people every- 
where, At the present time county and provincial boards 
of education are active. The meetings of the National 
Education Association have continued during all the 
years of confusion since the establishment of the Re- 
public and have been attended by representatives from 
every province, even during the periods when China has 
seemed to Western observers to be divided between rival 
governments in the North and in the South. The Board 
of Education of the Central Government, while it has 


[114] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


suffered from the chaotic conditions that prevailed dur- 
ing the tenure of office of successive ministries, has never- 
theless maintained itself, and has fostered a considerable 
amount of educational reform. 

Perhaps the most significant evidence that China’s 
devotion to education is as vital today as in the past 
is to be found in the Chinese National Association for the 
Advancement of Education. This association is not 
officially connected with the Government, and is thus 
secure from the fluctuations of political success or politi- 
cal favor. It includes in its membership all the note- 
worthy educational leaders in China today. Many of 
these men are scholars who won distinction in the old 
examinations and combine a thorough mastery of Chinese 
literature and Chinese educational traditions with pro- 
gressive ideas and an eager, receptive attitude to new 
concepts for educational and intellectual progress from 
the West. The most influential officials connected with 
the official Board of Education are also members of this 
association, and it has authority by reason of these semi- 
official connections as well as through its own creative 
intellectual leadership. 

It is true that the mass of the Chinese are still illiterate 
and that the task of furnishing even four years of ele- 
mentary education for all these millions is a staggering 
one, especially in view of the present depleted resources 
of the Republic. Anything that can be called universal 
education for China seems a distant goal. But every 
student of the history of education knows that universal 
education even in the West is a comparatively modern 


[115] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


ideal. The prevailing illiteracy and ignorance in China 
is a challenge to all who desire the welfare of the na- 
tion. There is strong encouragement to be found in 
the fact that the supremacy of the trained mind is rec- 
ognized today quite as fully as ever before in Chinese 
history. 


2. The Literary Revolution 


Perhaps the most notable achievement of the New 
Tide spirit is found in the literary revolution which it has 
supported. Toa foreigner stepping into a Chinese book- 
store without a guide and interpreter there would be little 
to indicate any change, The ideograms of the book titles 
would seem to him precisely the same as those in which 
the Classics are printed, and he would be inclined to find 
support for his Western surprise that an able people 
should continue to feature their thinking by the use of 
such archaic, written symbols, but to one able to read 
Chinese and familiar with the older written style, a glance 
through the books and magazines displayed would bring 
amazement. ‘Titles such as these would be noticed: Com- 
plete Works of John Dewey, The Social Theories of Ber- 
trand Russell, The Principles of the Soviet Government, 
The Scientific Development of Chinese Resources, His- 
tory of Chinese Philosophy, The Chinese Classics Written 
im Common Speech, The Significance of Ibsen in Modern 
Culture. And when the surprised visitor looked into 
these books, he would find himself reading characters 

[116] 


alt ikl ch ta ig ane CIC Mise th le Wo UN aaa 

Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 
ee eect OAs “RET. Ok ccamateuamnaelst dwelt MA beau Bille natin ating ete eae 
expressing the speech forms of every-day life instead of 
the antiquated formal and allusive style of the wen-li,— 
the “Chinese Latin,”’—which has been the only acknowl- 
edged vehicle for literary expression since the beginning 
of the Christian era. 

The Wu Ching—five classics—which were edited by 
Confucius were written with a bamboo pen on slips of 
bamboo. The difficulties of this method of writing en- 
couraged brevity and a concise style. A break in the 
continuity of Chinese culture was caused by the First 
Emperor of the Ch’in Dynasty (z.c. 213) when, by the 
burning of books and the execution of hundreds of 
literati, he tried to wipe out completely the troublesome 
scholarship which had constantly checked his plans by 
an appeal to tradition and to historical precedents as 
recorded in ancient books. There was an interval of one 
hundred and fifty years before intellectual activity re- 
covered from the shock of this bitter experience. Mean- 
while the common speech of the people had developed 
into new forms of expression. Han scholarship was 
devoted to the task of discovering the hiding places where 
the bamboo books that contained the Confucian legends 
were preserved, and in reconstructing the documents. A 
knowledge of the ancient style and its pronunciation be- 
came the distinctive mark of the scholar class or literati. 
The ancient books were committed to memory, and there- 
after every form of literary composition was marked by 
phrases and allusions taken from the ancient books. 
From the days of Han (s.c. 206-a.p. 221) the philolo- 


[117] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


gists, grammarians, and literary men of China devoted 
themselves to the cultivation and refinement of this style. 
Literary scholarship concentrated on the classical literary 
forms. 

Meanwhile, the common speech was left free to follow 
its own course of independent development. Probably 
no modern language has had such freedom to follow the 
lead of its own instinctive needs and interests unrestricted 
by the attention of grammarians as the kuan-hua—stand- 
ard speech, or so-called Mandarin—of China. Although 
himself using kuan-hua for all spoken purposes, the 
Chinese literatus had no thought of using it for composi- 
tion. Instead, his writing would be in the concise, classi- 
cal style, with skilful use of neat phrases to show his 
wide reading and his mastery of the old literature, sug- 
gesting by his delicate allusions ideas and feelings that 
did not need to be expressed, but that would be a part 
of the cultural heritage of all his readers. A parallel 
for this sort of writing is found in the compositions of 
European scholars before the fourteenth century, who 
did not use for writing the spoken language of their 
own or any other region, but always put serious com- 
position into Latin. 


The new reformers have overthrown the old system. 
They have succeeded in doing for China the work which 
Dante, Wycliffe, Luther, and others performed in Europe, 
making the vulgate, or vernacular, the vehicle for literary 
expression, liberating thought for free expression, break- 
ing the caste system of scholarship, and making it pos- 


[118] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


sible to spread ideas more rapidly through the nation. 

The recent phase of the literary revolution began only 
a few years ago in discussions among Chinese students 
in America, as to the possibility of expressing ideas in 
the living language of today. A particular leader among 
them was Hu Shih-chih (Dr. Suh Hu) who maintained 
that vernacular forms could be used for every sort of 
literary composition including poetry, and proceeded to 
demonstrate his convictions. Upon his return to China in 
1917 he became the acknowledged leader of “‘a conscious 
movement among the educated class of China to recog- 
nize and proclaim the plain speech of the majority of 
the people as a real national language and the fit instru- 
ment of a living literature in all its forms.” The Pai Hua 
Yun Tung, or movement to establish the plain speech 
for literary use, spread with astonishing rapidity. It soon 
won a complete victory over the ancient tradition. 

Now let us go back to the bookstore, where we have 
already found evidence for this successful revolution, 
and look more carefully at what is to be found on the 
shelves. Here is a set of “readers” for all the grades of 
the primary schools. As you turn the pages, you find 
just such pictures as can be seen in our American text- 
books to help the child into a quick and interesting mas- 
tery of reading and writing. In the text which accom- 
panies the pictures are the familiar forms of everyday 
speech which the child uses at home. Over there is a 
pile of magazines. It is said that more than four hun- 
dred magazines in the national language were begun 
in the year 1919 alone. Some of these were short-lived, 


[119] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 

Her. aR CREM EN Ua aens alideas 
but their places have been taken by others, and the eager 
flow of ideas through the new medium continues. If we 
turn to the textbooks and reference works to be used for 
university work, we find the same condition. Scientific 
treatises, translations of Western books, or original com- 
positions are all in the new form. No longer do you 
meet with such curiosities as a translation of Jevons’ 
Primer of Logie written by a distinguished scholar in 
a style so abstruse that the able Chinese scholar who 
assisted me in my early years found on every page sev- 
eral characters with which he was himself unfamiliar. 
Think of it! A primer to explain the ways of logical 
thinking written with symbols full of allusions that could 


be explained only by a knowledge of the literature of 
500 B.c.! 


Just as in the case of the Renaissance in Europe, there 
is a revival of thinking going on all over China, an 
eagerness for ideas and for expressing them such as is 
paralleled only in the early stages of great creative periods 
of human development. To be sure, not all of this flood — 
of new composition is of the highest value; some West- 
erners who have read translations of selected articles 
criticise the paucity of new ideas which they find and 
the naive repetition of platitudes, but one should remem- 
ber that it is necessary to have “exercises” in new words 
and new forms of style before great productions appear. 
It is a mistake to conclude that there is no fruitful think- 
ing appearing in the new form. The work of Doctor 
Hu, estimated by any standard, is work of a high quality 

[120] 


PEKING UNIVERSITY STUDENTS 


Social freedom and scientific method stimulated by Christian 
enterprise. A college girls’ holiday in the grounds of the 
Temple of Heaven, and men studying seed selection in the De- 


partment of Agriculture. 


‘pavoy Ajieajo sem odoos ur [euoljeu pue ‘asatsuayaidwos “pajiun ‘YInyd ssoury) 
® JO dI0A dy} WOYM YSNO1Y} IsaulyD IIA Sojyesajap Peipuny Udddgja oy} Jo Ayoleu Vy 


7261 ‘AVW ‘IVHONVHS “AONFAFANOD NVILSINHO IVNOILVN AHL 


, as 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


in historical and philosophical studies. Mr. V. K. Ting, 
the head of the geological survey of China, has produced 
several papers of the very first value. Professor L. K. 
Yao is making valuable studies in Chinese sociology and 
economics, a field that offers fascinating opportunity for 
unlimited development. Essays and poetry of distinc- 
tion are to be found in the new style. It is hardly neces- 
sary to pile up the evidence. Certainly the Western 
world should watch with keen interest and enthusiastic 
support the growth of this movement in China which 
gives promise of making contributions to world culture. 

To these influences it is fair to add that of the Chris- 
tian enterprise in China, which from its inception devoted 
itself to the task of translating the Christian Scriptures 
into kuan-hua, the common speech, in spite of the tradi- 
tional Chinese disapproval and the classical objections te 
such procedure, Protestant Christianity in China, just 
as in England, Germany, and elsewhere, could not be 
satisfied until it had made available in the common speech 
its Scriptures and explanations of its doctrines. It may 
be difficult to claim a direct relationship between the 
“Movement for Using Common Speech” and Christianity, 
but there can be no question that the Christian practise 
suggested a proper course of procedure. * More than they 
realize the modern leaders are following the Christian 
example, Moreover Christian workers everywhere have 
been eager supporters of the literary revolution in its 
modern phase. 

No account of the literary revolution would be com- 
plete that did not mention the interesting work of the 


[121] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


group of reformers who, under the inspiration of K’ang 
Yu-wei and with the support for a few brief days of 
the unfortunate Emperor, Kuang Hst, inaugurated in 
1898 a wholesale reform movement. Although the 
famous Empress Dowager, Tzu Hsi, escaped from the 
plans of the reformers to eliminate her from control of 
the government and returned to power to place her im- 
perial nephew in captivity and to execute or punish his 
reforming advisers, she was wise enough to see the value 
of many of the reforms proposed and became herself 
later an advocate of most of them. 

One should add finally that the eager “returned stu- 
dents” and modern literary radicals have had the support 
of a notable group of men whose training was received 
in the classical system through the very examination 
system which is now discarded. These men received 
from that training such real capacity and cultural breadth 
as to recognize the need in China for a new intellectual 
vitality, and they were able to give vigorous reenforce- 
ment through the strength of their reputation and ability. 
The reformers have the eagerness and courage of youth, 
but they have still to prove themselves able to produce 
sound scholarship worthy to rank with the best work of 
the intellectual leaders of the Ch’ing period. 

The literary revolution in China, which is too little 
known to Westerners in its true significance, is of far 
more importance than the political revolution of 1911 of 
which the West has heard so much. Is it not plain that 
in relation to the revolution in thinking and in literature 
which is taking place before our eyes today there must 


[122] 


St a 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


be careful scrutiny of the methods used in presenting the 
Christian message in China? Most foreigners know that 
there was a Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and that all Chinese 
life has been modified since then, but few realize that in 
these most recent years, 1917-23, changes in the thought 
life of China have been begun which will more seriously 
modify that life than anything that has happened in 
Chinese history since the period of the Sung Dynasty in 
the tenth to thirteenth centuries. 


3. The Student Movement 


The West is generally familiar with the story of the 
anti-Japanese boycott which developed in 1919. This 
movement was China’s protest against the victory of 
Japan at the Peace Conference in Paris, when the great 
powers allowed her to retain control of Shantung as her 
reward for the assistance given in the World War. 
Within a few weeks of the announcement of that Paris 
decision, the boycott had assumed such proportions that 
its effects were seriously felt in Japanese export to China, 
and the Japanese Government, through the usual diplo- 
matic channels, was protesting to China against the un- 
friendliness of the movement. The effectiveness of the 
boycott was made possible by the support of powerful 
Chambers of Commerce in which the merchants of China 
are organized in every province and every great city 
throughout the land. Not only did merchants agree not 
to handle Japanese goods, but people everywhere through- 
out the country gave their assistance by refusing, on 

[123] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


patriotic grounds, to make any further use of Japanese, 
goods. In many cities such goods were publicly burned. 

The organization and rapid spread of this successful 
movement and the effective coordination of all patriotic 
Chinese in the use of economic force, which was their 
only weapon against Japan and against the decision which 
the diplomats of the world had endorsed, was due en- 
tirely to the efforts of the students of the country. The 
incident is the most striking illustration in modern times 
of the leadership which educated classes can give to their 
country in a crisis. The part which the university under- 
graduates and high school boys and girls of China played 
in influencing the political policies of their own govern- 
ment has become an example already copied by student 
classes in other countries in efforts to criticise policies and 
to force political leaders to give higher regard to the 
public welfare. The moment the news reached China 
that the Shantung question had been adjusted at the 
Paris Peace Conference in a fashion entirely unjust to 
China, progressive Chinese leaders expected some sort 
of a protest from the Chinese Government, but the 
cabinet at that time was so fully under the control of 
the Anfu Club—a pro-Japanese group which was making 
personal profit out of the loans made by Japanese finan- 
ciers, for which the resources of China were being of- 
fered as security,—that no sign of action on the part of 
Chinese official representatives appeared. 
On May 4, 1919, the students of the capital under the 
leadership of the undergraduates of the National Uni- 
versity of Peking made a solemn procession of protest in 


[124] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


order to call to the attention of the diplomats of foreign 
nations, the injustice registered at Paris, and to warn 
their own people as well. When refused admission into 
the Legation Quarter of Peking, the procession made its 
way to the home of Ts’ao Ju-lin, one of the most hated 
pro-Japanese politicians, where students broke into his 
residence and drove into ignominious flight the arch- 
traitor and two of his chief partners. These men even- 
tually found refuge in a hospital! The Government tried 
to use forceful measures of repression. The students 
responded by organizing a “strike,” to demand release of 
those arrested for the rumpus of May 4, and to inform 
the public at large regarding the injustice of the Paris 
award as well as to mark the weakness and treachery of 
the Peking Government. A committee of college and 
university administrators supported the efforts of the 
students. The students and officers of Christian institu- 
tions joined heartily in the movement. Women shared 
equally with the men in promoting the undertaking. With 
astonishing ability they effectually organized the students 
of other centers so that within two weeks the entire stu- 
dent body of China was actively engaged in well- 
coordinated efforts to rouse the public by street lecturing, 
newspaper articles, processions, and mass meetings. Pub- 
lic opinion rallied to the cause. The powerful merchant 
gilds and Chambers of Commerce gave active support. 
Under the pressure of this popular protest, the Gov- 
ernment was forced to accept the resignation of the three 
chief pro-Japanese traitors. The entire population com- 
mitted itself to the support of the anti-Japanese boycott. 


[125] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


This vigorous popular protest modified the policies of 
the Chinese Government and gave support to the Chinese 
delegates at Paris in their refusal to sign the vicious treaty 
of Versailles. The determined protest of that refusal 
gave China greater respect in the eyes of other nations, 
and set in motion forces which, when reenforced by the 
powerful American people, resulted in a course of events 
that led eventually to the calling of the Washington Dis- 
armament Conference at which the unjust Paris decision 
was reversed, and Shantung was restored to China. 
Undergraduate students of China have influenced world 
affairs today. 

It may seem strange that I should have broken off the 
story of the Hsin Ch’ao and its literary revolution to 
insert this story of the activities of Chinese students in 
relation to political policies. Let me explain by showing 
the close connection between the student movement and 
that same literary revolution. 

The spoken word was the effective instrument by 
which the students made known to the populace of China 
the desperate situation in which their country had been 
placed. Earnest and ardent speaking was supplemented 
by handbills, posters, and pamphlets, by newspapers and 
magazine articles which necessarily made use of the 
simplest idioms. The students up to the moment of their 
first procession and strike had been interested partici- 
pants in the debate about the need for a literary revolu- 
tion in China. For the most part, they had accepted the 
arguments of Mr. Chen Tu-hsiu and Doctor Hu. The 

[126] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


war-cry of the reformers used in the debate was, “No 
dead language can produce a living literature. If China 
wants a living literature, it must be in the living lan- 
guage.’ Perhaps this sentiment stimulated in the stu- 
dents a new sense of national responsibility as leaders of 
their people. Certain it is that the immediate crisis re- 
quired a medium through which modern education and 
modern ideas could be transmitted at once to the common 
folk. Whatever final explanation may be discovered for 
the connection between the student movement and the 
literary revolution, it is certain that each stimulated, sup- 
plemented, and sustained the other. When the immediate 
activities of the anti-Japanese boycott were over, there 
was no further discussion about the Pai Hua, or “plain 
language” question. Newspapers and magazines, which 
had made use of the new medium in their devotion to 
the national cause during the anti-Japanese crises, found 
it easy to continue the use of the freer forms of expres- 
sion. The whole situation stimulated the National Edu- 
cation Association in its meeting of October, 1919, to 
decree that the spoken language alone should be taught 
in the primary schools and used in textbooks. Kuo-Yu— 
the national speech, with a standard pronunciation—was 
adopted for the use of the whole country, and it is now 
the recognized standard for Chinese, South as well as 
North. The debate is over. The old vehicle of literary 
expression maintained by the literary caste, supported by 
the civil service examination system, and receiving of- 
ficial governmental sanction through a millennium has 
[127] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


gone from general use, never to return. Study of the 
Classics and of the classical style in China will continue, 
just as there is still a study of Latin in our own and 
in European universities. But the Chinese mind has 
freed itself from the necessity for carrying on exhaust- 
ing and confining studies in that special field in order to 
recognize itself as educated. A heavy burden has been 
lifted from the shoulders of all who seek an education. 
The mind of China has been set free to flow on into 
fresh achievement. 


4. The Scientific Spirit 


In addition to the literary revolution, Hsin Ch’ao is 
responsible for a variety of other activities in Chinese 
intellectual life. While the purpose and aim of the 
particular phases of the movement differ somewhat, these 
activities are all devoted to the scientific spirit, and 
represent an endeavor to make use of that spirit and of 
the methods in which it has expressed itself for the 
critical examination of traditional knowledge and in 
fresh adventures in the discovery of truth. China’s ink 
tellectual leaders today agree with the great Hindu 
prophet, Rabindranath Tagore, in recognizing the value 
of the scientific method which it has been the privilege 
of Western culture to perfect and apply to almost every 
phase of human life. Like him, they realize that the 
East must learn from the West how to use this great 
new tool of thinking. Whatever the defects which 
Orientals see in our Western life, they all appreciate 

[128] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


that the Occident has a great gift for world life in this 
wonderful tool of science. 


It is interesting to note that the Chinese have passed 
through several stages in their relation to the culture of 
the West and the result which that has produced. The 
Reverend T. T. Lew, Ph.D., Dean of the School of 
Theology, Peking University, notes four stages in these 
relationships.* 

The first stage came when the Chinese were rudely 
awakened by the commercial and political aggression of 
the Western powers to realize that the Western nations 
possessed some things which they themselves did not 
have. There followed a movement for the introduction 
of the goods produced by modern mechanical science. 

A. second change began its operation after the war with 
Japan, when the Chinese “began to realize that it was 
not merely guns and battleships and such mechanical de- 
vices that represent the sources of Western power.” At- 
tention was shifted to the personnel behind the ma- 
chinery, away from the outward scientific mechanisms 
and toward the training of men in modern scientific 
education. | 

Following the Boxer struggle, the third change was 
brought about with the realization that there could be 
little progress in education without a new system of 
government. An attempt was made to replace the tradi- 
tional, dynastic form of government with democratic and 
constitutional forms again copied from the West. 


1 China Today Through pia ah Chapter II. 
(129 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


Since 1911 the fourth stage appears, in which the 
Chinese begin to see that the source of Western power 
is not to be found in the political and social institutions 
that have resulted from scientific and democratic methods 
any more than it is to be found in material machinery 
and convenient goods produced by machines. An en- 
deavor is now being made to understand the real secret 
of Western strength and to search for the scienttfic phi- 
losophy, the principles as well as the tools of thinking, 
that have made the West great. One wonders if the 
Chinese in this last phase of their search are not show- 
ing more of insight and discernment than any other 
Oriental, or backward people of the present time. At 
any rate, the determination to learn scientific principles 
for themselves and to master the use of scientific methods 
is the most distinctive characteristic of China’s intellectual 
life today. Hsin Ch’ao inspires and focuses this effort 
to master and apply the spirit of science to all of China’s 
problems. 

This endeavor is seen in the marked critical spirit of 
the Hsin Cl’ao movement. No sort of tradition—lit- 
erary, political, social, ethical or religious—is allowed to 
pass unchallenged. Every form of authority is attacked, 
every accepted standard or idea must give account of 
itself and present a sound rational argument for its con- 
tinuance. Nothing is to be accepted unless it can stand 
the exact scrutiny demanded by scientific method and 
the test of facing facts. 

The urge of this new spirit has sent some of the 
leaders back to a study of China’s old heritage. Dr. Hu 

[130] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


has already been mentioned. His History of Chinese 
Philosophy (in Chinese) appeared in 1918, and has been 
one of the “best sellers” since that time. It presents an 
entirely new picture of the creative period of Chinese 
culture, when the great philosophers, Lao-tzu, Kung-tzu, 
and Moh-tzu, lived and wrote, and their followers carried 
on eager contentions over the developing systems of 
thought. The effect of this book was to renew interest 
in the old classical period. A variety of schools of inter- 
pretation are developing from this interest. Under in- 
tense and careful scientific study, new vitality and truth 
are sought for from those ancient books. Mr. Liang 
Ch’i-Ch’ao is another who is carrying methods of scien- 
tific study into the historical field. His studies of some 
of the older philosophers, his book on the application of 
scientific methods to the historical study of China, as 
well as his history of the thought of particular periods, 
are all eagerly read, and they provoke much discussion. 

In other lines, such men as Mr. V. K. Ting in geology, 
Professor L. K. T’ao in sociology, and a number of 
younger writers are carrying on similar scientific work 
with eager enthusiasm. One interesting discovery already 
resulting from these studies is the fact that China has 
not been altogether without scientific thinkers in the past. 
For example, a geographer is known in the sixteenth 
century whose writings show a capacity for exact ob- 
servation that is rarely equalled even by the leaders of 
scientific expeditions today. As Dr. Hu notes, the new 
scientific spirit in China will not be able to have perma- 
nent value for Chinese life except as it discovers roots in 


[131] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


the old heritage to which the new shoots can be grafted. 
The variety of Chinese thinking, invention, and discovery 
in the past is so great that it does not seem difficult to 
believe that there will be found Chinese antecedents to 
which each sort of modern research, be it in natural 
science, sociology, economics, ethics, religion, or philoso- 
phy, can be intimately related. 

Among the younger leaders of Hsin Ch’ao and particu- — 
larly in undergraduate circles, there is, as one would 
expect, a more evident tendency towards radical and ex- 
treme positions than among the older leaders. Everything 
in modern Western thinking is translated and made avail- 
able for the Chinese student. Ibsen and Shaw and Nietz- 
sche, French essayists, Italian romanticists, German pessi- 
mists, and Russian radicals are all available and have their 
advocates in larger or smaller groups. The “anti” clubs 
are numerous—anti-capital, anti-religion, anti-family tra- © 
dition, anti-old-fashioned ethics. 

In the effort to know the very latest Western thinking, 
an association has been formed to invite to China the 
world’s most notable intellectual leaders. 

John Dewey spent two years lecturing to eager throngs 
in many centers. Bertrand Russell spent a year explain- 
ing and illustrating some of his social and psychological 
beliefs. Hans Driesch, the German psychologist, spent 
a year in China. Rabindranath Tagore has brought 
India’s latest message. China today is surely “proving 
all things.” May she know how to hold to “that which 
is good.”’ 


[132] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


5. Social Reconstruction 


Kai Tsao—reconstruction—is one of the watch words 
of Hsin Chao, and the spirit of such effort is manifested, | 
not only in literary revolution or systematic scientific re- 
search, but in the field of social improvement as well. 
Mention has already been made of the “neighborhood 
schools” established by undergraduate students all. over 
China for the poor children who have, as yet, no other 
opportunity for education. In almost every school and 
college in China, the students have themselves formed 
an association for teaching the children in the neighbor- 
hood of their institution. Hundreds of boys and girls 
and men and women have devoted a large part of their 
free time to the simple teaching of the three ‘‘R’s” to 
their younger fellow countrymen. Not only in instruc- 
tion, but also in the guidance of playground activities, a 
spontaneous social service is being carried out. The same 
spirit is shown in the work done by students during the 
calamities of flood and famine. No one who saw it will 
forget “tag day” in Peking in 1921, when several thou- 
sand students from all the schools of the city spent a day 
—in the face of the famous blustering, dusty, north-west 
wind of Peking—stopping every passer-by on the street, 
and winning from each some contribution to famine re- 
lief. The huge piles of coppers received made a fund of 
over four thousand dollars, and the whole city had a les- 
son in giving for others. In many institutions, student 
groups have been formed under the leadership of pro- 
fessors of economics and sociology, to make careful 


[133] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


studies of the conditions of living of the poor in the 
region, and on the basis of their investigations they have 
administered relief that was at once scientific and helpful. 

Such activities are not confined to students. The habit 
of being dissatished with existing conditions has de- 
veloped among other groups of the population as well. 
Provision for public lectures is made in all the cities and 
many of the larger towns where present-day problems can 
be discussed, and community associations have been estab- 
lished in many places. A few of such groups are: “So- 
ciety to Discuss Family Reconstruction”; “Society for 
Promoting New Education”; “Philosophical Society” ; 
“Marxian Society”; ‘Educational Service Society”; 
“Labor Societies.’ These indicate the variety of interests 
which the movement has already covered. 

That encouragement of attention to sanitation and pub- 
lic hygiene had been begun before what can properly be 
called the Hsin Ch’ao was evident. Various Christian or- 
ganizations, the Young Men’s Christian Association in 
particular, had begun to organize “health campaigns,” 
and by means of posters, lectures, lantern slides, etc., had 
presented the menace of germs, the need to “swat the 
fly,” and to guard food supplies from various sorts of 
contamination. But these endeavors received new im- 
petus when Hsin Chao leaders sent their followers. out 
as crusaders for every sort of social reconstruction in- 
cluding public hygiene. Wet Sheng—sanitation—is a 
phrase known now by the common people everywhere. 
To be sure, many have queer ideas of what real sanitation 


[134] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


is, but the phrase represents an ideal; and month by month 
there are truer conceptions of the wider scientific and 
social significance of the term. If you pass through the 
streets of Peking in the summer, you will see that grocery 
men and food venders are very careful to place netting 
screens over their wares as protection against flies. There 
are, to be sure, cases where the screen is not a complete 
covering, but surely it is an advantage to have the cover- 
ing on four sides even if a fifth is open to attack. The 
advancing phalanx of these screens is a sign of the grow- 
ing understanding of sanitation and public hygiene. 

Many studies are being made to determine, if possible, 
what social standards and social devices from the old 
tradition have enough value to be continued. Questions 
of this type are being studied: How about the family 
code? How may individual rights be adjusted to family 
control? How can a fresh social consciousness be de- 
veloped for the social groups wider than the family circle? 
Here also radical tendencies are to be found. Due to 
proximity to Russia, the Soviet experiments are being 
closely watched. <A daily paper in Peking has carried 
for several years very full reports of the activities of the 
Soviet government in Russia. Until very recently, a more 
truthful account of conditions in Russia was given in 
the press of Peking than in Western capitals. Other 
social experiments are being studied. Every scheme for 
social betterment devised in the West is known and has 
its advocates, whether it originated with the I.W.W., 
Bolshevists, parlor-socialists, advocates of free love, 


[135] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


Christians who represent the extremes of liberalism or 
conservatism, or unfettered philosophers. 

The Chinese are making these studies not so much to . 
copy any definite Western scheme, conservative or radi- 
cal, as to be thoroughly equipped with information about 
reconstruction elsewhere, for the opportunity and task 
of making over by themselves the entire social structure 
of their life. 

Their very audacity and optimism are inspiring. 


6. Christianity and the New Tide 


These brief paragraphs do not carry to the average 
Westerner what I should like to convey of the thrill one 
feels in the new vitality of the thought and life in China. 
Try to get the idea by thinking of your own enthusiasm 
when you read of the eager young men and women of 
Europe in the days when the revival of learning had 
just begun and whole new worlds of ideas were being 
entered upon by the liberated mind of the West. The 
movement in China has just as much of this enthusiastic, 
abundant energy and vitality as that which created modern 
Western civilization. Is it unwise to prophesy that in 
the days to come, when historians shall estimate the most 
significant events of the past critical decade in human 
life, they may find themselves obliged to note at the head 
of their list as of greatest world importance, not the 
tragic events of destructive warfare in Europe, but the 
re-creative movements in China? We may be well as- 
sured that the revival of creative activity in China, if it 

[136] 


Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 


has indeed occurred, will be of far greater significance 
to the world than the great war of Europe. War has 
always been, and was particularly in this last case, de- 
structive. In the social and intellectual revival of China, 
the forces at work are in comparison constructive, 
though they need the highest insight and ideals for their 
best development. In the international era upon which 
we are now entering the exchange between East and West, 
each giving that which is best and most fruitful in its own 
discoveries and heritage, is to be of great significance, for 
there is surely to be developed a new culture for all 
mankind, which shall be no longer regional or national, 
as every period of culture has been in the past, but truly 
international and for the world. Above all other things, 
this New World culture will unite the messages and dis- 
coveries that the prophets of every race and nation have 
made, that the peoples of every land have developed. 


What of the challenge to the Christian enterprise which 
this new tide of resurgent energy in China presents? 
From that challenge, what suggestions are there for types 
of work and policies, for qualities of personality and 
attitudes of approach? 

The Hsin Ch’ao is marked by creative energy. To 
match it there must be a renewal of spiritual power in the 
Christian enterprise capable of producing freshened spir- 
itual activity. In the atmosphere of these new days the 
Christian enterprise cannot content itself with efforts 
that are weak or negative. It must be so closely related 
to the Divine Sources of power, that it shall present itself 


[137] 


ane 


PAOD 5 ANB an Gc Gone eisai AL scene DANTE Decale Ss ia 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 

ss LEE SINR aR NRA 
a worthy match for the freshened eagerness of the literary 
reformers. 

Because the present renaissance is so marked by literary 
and intellectual activities, the Christian enterprise is to 
present its message in literary forms that are attractive 
and stimulating to the new thinking. 

The effort of Hsin Ch’ao to renew connections with the 
older tides of Chinese culture and life and to recover the 
old heritage, demands of all Christian workers a clearer 
and more sympathetic understanding of China’s past. 
Missionary workers must be acquainted with and sympa- 


_ thetic with the messages of China’s own prophets. They 
need to know how to present the gospel of Jesus as the 


fulfilment of that which has been good and true in the 
old days. 

The student activities of the new tide require attention 
even more than before. There is needed a Christian youth 
movement, giving to the younger generation its true place 
in the Christian task, preparing a Christian message in 


terms that can be understood by the young. The oppor- 
_ tunity is open to show in China that more is needed than 
a literary revolution; that spiritual renewal is required 
-as well. 


The scientific spirit of Hsin Ch’ao demands of the 
Christian messenger careful re-thinking of his positions. 
The critical spirit of the new movement will not fail to 
mark Christian teachings and methods that belong to an 
older generation. There is a challenge here to the Chris- 
tian apologist for a new defense of his faith. What is 
needed is the courageous and adventurous spirit in com- 


[138] 


Se 


22g RES NE AR RR NBS A 
Hsin Ch’ao—The New Tide 
Pra ceSia, oid SURE eRe SL SGU AS UATE aa eed Nb « Prat 


plete loyalty to Jesus, trained to face all the currents and 
cross-currents of modern thinking, and ready to prove the 
soundness of the Christian message in relation thereto. 
The social reconstruction of the new tide brings another 
challenge to the Christian enterprise. There are many 
who say today that such reconstruction can be conducted 
without religion, that religion has, indeed, nothing to add 
of vital energy to the task. Christianity must re-affirm 
and more particularly demonstrate the necessity for the 
dynamic that comes from the example and person of 
Christ in all reconstruction that has made for true prog- 
ress. The optimism and courage of the new tide are not 
enough in themselves to produce the transformations in 
personal life and social conditions needed in China. Here 
is the challenge to the Christian Church, to show how 
men must link themselves to the resources of God if they 
are by any means to maintain the persistence and the 
energy needed for the long task of changing human life 
and transforming society. 
| The Christian worker may rejoice in the new tide, for 
if he can maintain friendly relations with its leaders, it 
_will be possible to link the promising energies of this vast 
| movement with the Christian undertaking. 


[139] 


Vv 
Spiritual Quests 


Dilapidated buildings, shabby courtyards, or images 
and religious symbols actually exposed to the destructive 
forces of the elements and in various stages of pitiful 
decay, represent to many Western observers the condi- 
tion of religious life in China today. Such impressions 
can be matched by many vivid pictures drawn from my 
own experience, showing images of clay, wood, or stone 
slowly disappearing under the combined attack of sum- 
mer heat and “winter wind” as well as “man’s ingrati- 
tude.” A neglected idol is indeed a pathetic figure; rain 
has washed away its gay colors and eroded its “flesh” of 
clay until at many points the bare skeleton of wooden 
beams shows through. Superstitious fears generally 
prevent dignified and decent removal. Nothing can be 
done unless a benefactor gives funds for complete resto- 
ration. The poor thing has no future other than slowly 
to melt away, returning to the elements out of which it 
was formed. There are so many decaying religious 
buildings that many travelers ask the question, do the 
Chinese never repair their temples? There are, indeed, 
places where new images and repaired temples can be 
found, but there is enough evidence to show that for mil- 
lions of the people the old symbols of spiritual things do 
not answer to the modern need. 

On the other hand, any one who has lived long among 
the Chinese people knows of the strong hold which the 

[140] 


Spiritual Quests 


older forms of religion still have. Reference has been 
made in a previous chapter to the Temple Fairs to which 
people throng on special festival days. Take, for example, 
the Niang Niang Miao, Grandmother Goddess Temple, on 
Miao Feng Shan—Mystic Peak Mountain—a day’s walk 
into the mountains west of Peking. The temple is located 
on a picturesque spur of porphyry near the top of one 
of the highest peaks and looks down into-a valley of rare 
loveliness. Just below the temple the upper valley has 
broadened out. The slopes are glorious, and the air fra- 
grant in the springtime when the mei kuei—magenta roses 
—are in bloom; for the people cultivate acres of roses 
from which they make a fragrant wine that is used both 
for medicine and as a flavoring for tea and other re- 
freshing drinks. 

For eleven months of the year the temple is quiet and 
gives no hint of active life. A few guests come, not so 
much to worship as to enjoy the rare and lovely beauty 
of its location. The week-end visitor from Peking may 
wonder at the broad and carefully paved, stone roadways 
which lead up to the peak from the plains, the “North 
Road” and “South Road” that wind up the valleys on 
either side. But if you come to the temple in the fourth 
moon, you will find an utterly different scene. Pilgrims 
come in such throngs that for a fortnight before the 
opening day the great boulevard leading across the plain 
from Peking to the foot of the hills is crowded. Although 
it is said that a smaller company gathers now than for- 
merly, there are still many thousands of people who 
come, some of them from great distances, to worship the 


[141] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


“Grandmother Goddess” and to pray to her for sons and 
for health. 

Most of those who make the pilgrimage are fulfilling 
vows to visit and make offerings at her temple because 
of the cure of some dear member of their family, or for 
prosperity, or for protection from great danger that they 
believe she has granted them. For the expenses of one 
such pilgrimage the peasant folk will save for many 
years. Among the worshipers there may be many edu- 
cated folk as well. Those of one locality making the 
pilgrimage band together and travel with drummers and 
fifers, making gay music as they pass and bearing banners 
which describe the benefits received, and in response to 
which the pilgrimage is made. Yu ch’iu pi ying—“Ask 
and ye shall receive’—is a promise often carried on 
banners because there is proof of rich fulfilment. The 
temple courts during these days of pilgrimage are redo- 
lent with the fragrance of the vast quantities of incense 
burned in fulfilment of the vows, and they are packed 
with devotees. After the days of worship, the return- 
ing company is particularly gay with brightly colored 
ornaments and trinkets, good-luck souvenirs of the oc- 
casion, which they carry home as reminders of the 
experience. 

Mountains have been favorite sites for religious cere- 
monies ever since the Canaanites worshiped on every 
high place and under every green tree. Besides the five 
great peaks sacred to Taoism and the four holy heights 
of Buddhism, there are countless less famous hilltop 
shrines. Miao Feng Shan is but one of the great number 


[142] 


Spiritual Quests 


of holy mountains throughout China, where earnest multi- 
tudes still worship. 

The Chinese are by no means, as many suppose, a non- 
religious people. Between the cold neglect seen in our 
first picture and the ardent enthusiastic credulity found 
in the second, the religious life of the Chinese swings 
through every degree of faith. The tide of faith in 
China, like the tides of intellectual creativity, has had its 
ebb and flow. The indigenous animism, culminating in 
the noble worship of Heaven, had real spiritual energy 
in the days of the Chou dynasty (s.c. 1122-255). Some- 
thing of its force has been felt ever since, During the 
Wei dynasty (386-550 a.p.), Buddhism had surged in 
upon Chinese life to meet the spiritual cravings of the 
people who were not fully satisfied by orthodox Con- 
fucianism. There followed a period of glorious develop- 
ment when Buddhism inspired creativity in poetry and 
painting, in architecture and art, while thousands of 
temples and pagodas were built to express aspirations 
after spiritual ideals. But now for a long time there 
has been an ebb tide in Chinese religious thinking. The 
stimuli in this field have come from without. Christian- 
ity has come in, introduced first in modern times by 
Franciscan fathers in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), 
to be followed by priests of other orders. Robert Morri- 
son, in 1807, was the first Protestant missionary.. The 
movement which grew out of his work and that of his 
successors is described in another chapter. 

Our interest just now, however, is not so much in a 
description of the historic forms of Chinese faith, varied 


[143] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


and fascinating as these have been and are, but in several 
more serious questions. Is the Hsin Ch’ao, the intellec- 
tual renewal described in the preceding chapter, having 
any effect upon religious experience in China? Are there 
signs that the wavelets of a returning “tide of faith” are 
beginning to flow in upon the nation’s life? Does the 
spirit of critical scientific inquiry already noted mean the 
discarding or the reform of the old faiths? 

These questions might be answered with a single af- 
firmative. One of the magazines which expresses a new 
spiritual effort in China is called Hai Chao Yin, which 
means “the sound of the tide.’ Let us turn to note this 
sound and to trace in the various phases of Chinese life 
today any tendencies toward spiritual renewal that may be 
found in each of the “three religions,’—Confucianism, 
‘Taoism, Buddhism,—those major faiths that have minis- 
tered on a large scale to China’s spiritual needs, as well 
as in the “small religions,” those sects in which much of 
China’s deeper longings have been expressed. 


1. The Confucian Church 


Every visitor to Peking will at some time in his travel- 
ing about the city pass the gateway of the “Confucian 
Church” which stands on the broad boulevard running 
north from the Shun Chih gate. Extensive grounds have 
been secured here, and elaborate plans are being worked 
out for a Confucian University and a sort of cathedral 
in which to express and foster the religious values of the 
K’ung Chiao—religion of Confucius. This name is it- 


[144] 


Spiritual Quests 


self significant, for it is the term used by modernists in 
place of Ju Chiao—religion of the scholar—which is the 
name used throughout China’s history for the religious 
faith associated with what Westerners call the Confucian 
system. Until recent times the name of Confucius was 
not used by the Chinese themselves in connection with this 
system. 

‘It wiil interest us to make a call upon the leader of this 
“Neo-Confucian’” movement at his office. Dr. Ch’en 
Huan-chang will greet you in English. He is a doctor 
of philosophy of Columbia University, where he prepared 
a two-volume dissertation on the Economic Teachings of 
Confucius. He has been the active leader of the move- 
ment since his return to China ten years ago. Dr. Ch’en 
has endeavored to meet the need for a fresh moral and 
spiritual dynamic by using the Confucian tradition and 
centering spiritual devotion in the great Chinese prophet 
of conduct. 

In every possible way veneration for the high ethical 
teaching of Confucius is being impressed on modern 
China. The birthday of Confucius, which comes on the 
twenty-seventh of the eighth moon in the early autumn, 
very soon after the schools have begun, has been adopted 
as a holiday. The day is marked by special services of 
commemoration in a great many of the colleges and 
schools. In some cities efforts have been made on these 
occasions to unite all the schools and the literati of the 
place, while the public generally has been invited to the 
celebrations. Various forms of services have been used, 
the reading of the Classics, ancient music, and, in particu- 

[145] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


lar, addresses stressing the moral teaching of Confucius. 
The terrible corruption of modern political life in China 
gives special occasion for urging the noble, simple virtues 
of Confucius, the great prophet of human kindness, up- 
rightness, good form, wisdom, and sincerity. In many 
places Christian schools and churches have joined with 
other institutions in honoring China’s greatest sage. 

But Dr. Ch’en has in mind more than a commemora- 
tion of Confucius’ teaching. While his ideas are not alto- 
gether clear, he certainly adds something to the tradi- 
tional Confucian system which appears to involve a sort 
of worship of Confucius, at least in an ancestral fashion, 
as the progenitor of all educated folk. There was special 
need for some such emphasis on the moral standards of 
the Confucian system after 1911 when the Manchu 
dynasty was overthrown and republican forms of gov- 
ernment were set up, for the tendency to overthrow 
traditional authorities, moral and spiritual as well as 
political, might very easily have resulted in a neglect 
of the ethical system which had done so much for the 
people throughout the centuries. 

Special support for Confucian ethics was needed be- 
cause of the marked desire of most of the revolutionary 
leaders to discard entirely Confucius’ political teaching. 
This teaching cannot by any sort of liberal interpretation 
be made to justify any except a monarchical system of 
government. In some circles radicals have gone to the 
extreme of regarding Confucius and his political theories 
as a cause of much of China’s static passivity and weak- 
ness. Such men have been inclined to raise Mencius, the 


[146] 


Spiritual Quests 


great disciple of Confucius, to a position greatly superior 
to his master, since he gives a distinct democratic em- 
phasis in all his polititical teachings. It is Mencius 
who gives emphasis to the “right of the people to revolt 
and to remove unrighteous leaders.” 

In an afternoon’s conversation with Dr. Ch’en, I found 
many of his ideals admirable and worthy of support by 
all who have the good of China in mind. I was particu- 
larly interested in his strong emphasis on the need for a 
religious dynamic in connection with an ethical system. 
Near the close of the conversation, after ] had expressed 
sympathy with some phases of his ideals, Dr. Ch’en said, 
“Yes, you Westerners, who know of the place of religion 
in human life, can understand my plans for a Confucian 
Church far better than my own countrymen, who do not 
know what true religion is.’ The Neo-Confucianists, 
however, have been carried by their enthusiasm for the 
old prophet into extreme statements directly opposed 
to his own ideas of religious tolerance and to the tolerant 
practise of the Chinese, who have never felt any incon- 
sistencies in uniting the “three religions.” Throughout 
their lives they make use of each religion at various 
times and for various purposes. 


The less commendable phases of the movement were 
particularly noticeable during the early years of the Re- 
public in connection with a discussion carried on officially 
in Peking, but also everywhere throughout the country, 
with regard to the articles of the new constitution. The 
members of the Confucian Church, supported by many 


[147] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


literati and by the force of the old Confucian tradition, 
endeavored to secure the adoption of an article in the 
Constitution by which Confucianism would be established 
as the “state religion.” At two different times these 
efforts were pressed with particular vigor, first in 1913 
when the draft of the Constitution was being prepared, 
and again a few years later, after the confusion of the 
so-called Second and Third Revolution, when discussion 
of the Constitution was continued. In the first discus- 
sions the liberal and modern attitude of the members of. 
Parliament, with whom lay the decision, was so strong 
against anything so old-fashioned as a “state religion” 
that the Confucian Church group soon gave up its effort. 
But on the second occasion, when a certain reaction to 
the first revolutionary enthusiasm had taken place and it 
was easier to defend traditional decisions, the effort was 
very nearly successful. 

An interesting example of religious union was seen in 
the combination of religious and liberal groups which 
opposed the Chapter of the Constitution establishing Con- 
fucianism as the “state religion.” A union for religious 
freedom was formed including Roman Catholic and 
Protestant Christians, Buddhists, Mohammedans, and 
various liberals, who, without special religious views, were 
at the same time in complete accord with the demand for 
religious freedom as a part of intellectual freedom. Dr. 
Ch’eng Ching-yi, a noble Christian leader, prominent in 
Protestant circles, was most active in securing the sup- 
port of the other groups. He conducted what was really 
a national campaign for intellectual and religious free- 

[148] 


Spiritual Quests 


dom. Public meetings were held in all the important 
cities in China. At these meetings, representative leaders 
of the different Buddhist, Mohammedan, and Christian 
churches sat together on the platform and presented 
sound reasons against establishing any form of religion 
asa “state religion.” Petitions were prepared which were 
signed in hundreds of lecture halls and churches. The 
Protestant Christian groups were particularly active in 
supporting the cause of modern liberalism. It was im- 
pressive to attend these meetings and to feel the unity of 
spirit for the cause of religious freedom which over- 
whelmed all differences in particular views. Eventually 
these efforts were successful and the Chinese Constitu- 
tion today specifically establishes religious freedom for all 
the people. 


Dr. Ch’en’s Confucian Church movement is not the 
only effort to revitalize Confucian teaching and to make 
it a means whereby spiritual strength can be secured for 
Chinese life. Take, for example, the work of the Con- 
fucian army chaplains stationed at the large garrisons at 
Tung Chou. Regularly every week these men lecture to 
their troops on the simple virtues which Confucianism 
has always stressed. Some of the men have real ability 
to make vivid the commonplace but fundamental moral 
teaching which men really live by everywhere, though 
they are always prone to neglect it. The commanders in 
many of the “armies” that support the military overlords 
or tuchun have often shown real concern for the moral 
life of their troops. In Shansi Province the tuchun him- 


[149] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


self, the famous Yen Hsi-shan—so-called “model gov- 
ernor’—has been an active promoter of the effort to 
make Confucianism function more effectively in the moral 
and spiritual life of his troops and of the people gen- 
erally. Every visitor to his capital, Taiyuan, is taken 
to visit the “Hall of Self-cleansing.” Here an audience 
of several thousand can be gathered to receive instruc- 
tion and inspiration at special weekly services. Some- 
times Governor Yen is himself the “preacher of the 
day.” The soldiers are encouraged to go to this hall 
by themselves for meditation on Confucian teaching and 
for self-examination. The governor has shown a very 
liberal spirit in inviting visitors of other religions to speak 
to his troops. At Taiyuan there is also a group of 
“chaplains” who carry on a sort of “individual work” 
with the soldiers. 

My own experience would lead me to believe that there 
are many individuals and groups in China who are seek- 
ing, through a renewed study of Confucianism, to find 
satisfaction for inward spiritual craving. All thought- 
ful people in China realize the terrible moral debacle so 
evident today. China’s greatest need is evidently a 
dynamic and effective morality. Corruption in political 
life is worse today than it has probably ever been in 
Chinese history. The critical and scientific spirit of the 
age has weakened the hold of tradition. The emphasis 
on individual initiative encourages impatience with any 
sort of control. There is as yet no general acceptance 
of any new code. One can easily be very discouraged 
about China’s future if one has associated only with the 


[150] 


Spiritual Quests 


rotten political crowd and with the so-called “leaders of 
society.” Fortunately, not all the people have discarded 
all the old teachings, and there are many seeking for that 
which is pure and true, good and invigorating in the old, 
in order to find through it guidance and strength for the 
best in the human spirit as they are carried into a new 
environment. 


2. Neo-Buddhism 


We are told that Buddhism, in the days when it first 
came to them from India, was welcomed by the Chinese 
because it satisfied spiritual longings and religious needs 
that were not met by the strict and somewhat stoical, 
tational ethics of Confucius’ system. In the centuries 
that have passed since those days of enthusiastic recep- 
tion, Buddhism itself has lost much of its original vitality. 
For the most part the Buddhist clergy are ignorant and 
superstitious, unable to find for themselves or to give 
to others any adequate spiritual interpretation of the 
symbols which they venerate and guard. Probably in 
many cases the symbol has usurped the place of the spirit 
which it was intended to manifest. 

There are, of course, temples and monasteries that 
stand in notable contrast to the general degradation of the 
gospel of Buddha. Pu To Shan, a beautiful island off 
the China coast near Ning Po, is still a beautiful refuge 
for spiritual meditation and consolation. T’an Che Szu, 
a large monastery in the Western hills near Peking, main- 
tains religious services impressive even to the casual 


[151] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


European week-end visitor. Here and there within the 
temples one can find among the priests some who can 
discuss with intelligence the fundamental doctrines and 
philosophy of their faith, At T’ien Ch’eng Szu—The 
Temple of Heavenly Completion—set in a charming gorge 
on picturesque P’an Shan, east of Tung Chou, I have 
visited often with great delight of spirit. I knew two 
Buddhist friends, old Fa Po and his assistant, Hsiu 
Sheng, from whom I have learned much of Buddhist 
teaching. With them I have more than once discussed 
with profit the things of the spirit. We must not judge 
Buddhism too harshly in spite of the degenerate priests 
so frequently seen and the commercialism evident at 
most temples. Many Chinese undoubtedly find real 
spiritual uplift through Buddhist worship. Very likely 
in the private Buddhist chapels found in the homes of 
wealthy and refined people there is a truer spiritual life 
than in connection with the great temples. 

But it was in a temple that an experience I had taught 
me not to judge too much from outward appearances. I 
was attending a ceremony of initiation at the Hua An 
Szu in Peking. It was in the great hall before the bronze 
images that represent Buddha, self-poised, in calm con- 
templation. Listening to the moving, minor quality of 
the chant with which the worshipers intoned the won- 
drous names of Fo} I had watched the fiery “baptism” 
of each candidate as he was branded at three points on 
the wrist to mark his vow to keep the “five laws.” As 
the service ended, a flippant attendant asked me if I 
did not want my arm branded too. An old lady, whose 

[152] 


Spiritual Quests 


daughter had just taken the vows, listened closely as I 
replied: “I am curious to know the experience, but I 
could not receive the branding as a believer in the Fo. 
Tam a Christian. To receive the branding merely out of 
curiosity for new experience and without inward faith 
would be an insult to your religion and treachery to mine, 
would it not? Is not real religion a matter of the heart ?”’ 
The old lady turned to me at once, eagerly saying: “Is 
that the way you Westerners, you Christians, speak of 
your faith? Is the reality of religion for you also an 
inward experience of the heart?’ Unfortunately, it was 
not possible to continue the conversation which began so 
interestingly, but I have thought better of all Buddhists 
ever since, and have wished that Christians and those of 
other faiths might find easier access to each others’ 
hearts, and so to an exchange of inward experience by 
which “all the truth,’ of complete religious faith, might 
be more easily understood and received. 


There are fortunately in Buddhism, as in Confucian- 
ism, efforts being made to draw together in sincere fellow- 
ship all those who feel spiritual need, and who wish to 
cleanse present-day Chinese Buddhism of its most evident 
faults. In China, as well as in Japan, there is a modern 
Buddhism. The leader of this movement in China is the 
monk, T’ai Hsii. He was brought up among droning 
priests and shared in the daily monastic routine of the 
T’ien T’ong Monastery in the beautiful Chekiang Hills 
near Ningpo. “But there must have been in his veins 
some blood different from that of his fellow priests,” 

[153] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


writes the Rev. Frank Muillican, “or the person of a 
previous existence whose ‘karma’ was reborn in him 
must have lived a life that merited much, that he alone, 
of hundreds, should have risen above the humdrum 
existence of his fellow priests and have emerged as in- 
terpreter of Buddhism to this age.” 

After his ordination as priest at Tientsin, opportunity 
was made for him to study in Japan, and it is very likely 
that he received there knowledge of the outside world 
and of other religions and philosophies that stimulated in 
his soul plans for the reform and propagation of Bud- 
dhism. Initial efforts were not successful, and T’ai Hsti 
retired to the famous island, Pu To, for study and medita- 
tion. He might easily have gone on to the end of his 
days in such quiet restful life, finding satisfaction for his 
own soul in spiritual meditations far removed from the 
active and soiled life of the every-day world. But a few 
friends, who knew of his original hopes and plans, pre- 
vailed on him to sacrifice the life of inward peace and 
contemplation, just as his predecessor, Gautama, did, in 
order to be of service to his needy fellow men. He went 
to Shanghai and organized a Buddhist society, and then 
to other centers, organizing societies and clubs. In 1920 
he became editor of a monthly magazine, Hai Ch’ao Yin, 
“The Sound of the Tide,” devoted to the renewal of 
spirituality among Buddhists and to plans for a compre- 
hensive reform of the entire religion in China. In the 
plans proposed there is provision for ‘seven model mon- 
asteries, propaganda bureaus, benevolent associations, 
orphanages, reading rooms, lecture bureaus, publishing 

[154] 


Spiritual Quests 


departments, and a system of schools heading up in a 
college in Wuchang.” 

The propaganda features of the plan were those first 
taken up. T’ai Hsii and others have traveled throughout 
China giving lectures under the auspices of Buddhist clubs 
already in existence or organized under their direction. 
They have also spoken before various groups of educa- 
tionists. T’ai Hsii has lectured several times in Peking. 
His lectures have attracted the attention of students, and 
many among the younger intellectual and political leaders 
of the capital have gone to hear him. In addition to 
giving his own interesting interpretation of familiar 
Buddhist doctrines, T’ai Hsii seems particularly interested 
in bringing Buddhism into the closest possible contact 
with the social life of to-day, in order to exert real 
influence upon it. Whatever spiritual inspiration anyone 
receives must be given expression in social service. In 
an article entitled, “There is no Need Either to Destroy 
or Reform the Christian Church,” he contends that hos- 
pitals, schools, social service, etc., of which Christianity 
boasts, are not due to Christianity, but are common to all 
religions and all times. An interesting and recent ac- 
tivity of T’ai Hsii was the conference of Chinese Bud- 
dhist leaders held in the summer of 1922 in a temple at 
Kuling. . 

This conference, as reported by a Christian, Mr. Karl 
Ludwig Reichelt, brought together one hundred monks 
and lay devotees, a few Japanese Buddhists, some tens of 
interested Chinese, and a number of foreigners who 


1 Chinese Recorder, November, 1923. 
[155] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity | 


dropped in occasionally. The broad-mindedness of T’ai 
Hsti is shown by the fact that he had invited Mr. Reichelt, 
not only to attend, but to speak at the conference on 
“The Relationship between Christianity and Buddhism.” 
The aims of the conference, as expressed by T’ai Hsii 
were as follows: 


1. To stir up deeper interest in religious thinking and to pro- 
mote a deeper spiritual life among ourselves. 

2. To lead Buddhism in China to conform with and influence 
the life of society as never before. 

3. To come in contact with sincere religious people of other 
religions, and to talk over religious problems with them to our 
mutual help. 

4. We especially feel that Christians misunderstand us. Many 
of them only come in contact with ignorant and immoral Bud- 
dhist monks, strolling around in the streets. They think all 
Buddhists are of this type and that we are all given over to 
dark superstitions and do not really cultivate religion. We have 
started this conference movement to show you that this is not 
true. 

5. Finally, I will not conceal the fact that we hope through you 
to influence Western countries, where Buddhism is not very well 
known. We think Buddhism has something very valuable to give 
the world. 


The conference gave a cordial reception to Mr. 
Reichelt’s address, which was based on the precious ex- 
pression, “The Word, Tao” as given in John’s Gospel. 
Mr. Reichelt showed how the true Tao has been eternally 
at work giving life and light, but was fully manifested to 
appear on earth in the Son of Man, Christ Jesus. He 
interpreted the Tao by “expressions familiar to the 
audience because taken from the Buddhist sutras and 


[156] 


Spiritual Quests 


ritual so wonderfully rich in deeply religious terms.” Is 
he not right in feeling that these terms ought to be “bap- 
tized” and taken into the somewhat poor terminology of 
the Christian Church in China? 

Under leaders similar in spirit to T’ai Hsti, a real re- 
vival of Buddhism seems to be going on, particularly in 
the provinces of Kiangsi and Chekiang. In many of the 
large cities old temples are being repaired and new ones 
built. An increase is reported in the number of monks, 
and in the number of those who become lay-brothers by 
pledging themselves to the first five of the “ten com- 
mandments” required of the priests. 

In addition to the magazine already mentioned, Haz 
Ch’ao Vin, there are others which give opportunity for 
discussion of religious problems and of the aims of the 
new movement. New Buddhism, published at Ningpo, 
is one of the older and more important of these. The 
republication of Buddhist texts, with the help of wealthy 
supporters, is another form of the movement. A dic- 
tionary of Buddhist terms has been compiled to make 
the Buddhist terminology more intelligible to scholars of 
other faiths. Many books are also appearing which seek 
to interpret Buddhist teaching in the terms of Western 
philosophy and to harmonize it with modern teaching. 
Apparently, a movement of reform, which had begun 
some years ago, has found in T’ai Hst a prophet who can 
lead it from the cloister and study into outreaching con- 
tact with people of all classes, with an earnest purpose to 
serve them. 

Parallel with the reform within Buddhist circles, there 


[157] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


has been during the last five years a large increase in the 
number of those who are studying the religion. These 
men are usually scholars of the older type, rendered in- 
active both by advancing age and by the political revolu- 
tion which overturned the Manchu dynasty which they 
had served as high officials. In the evening of life, and 
perhaps with some sense of remorse for the practises 
required of them in official life, they are seeking some 
means by which to win inward peace. I think of a 
friend, Hon. Wang T’uh Shen, the first citizen of Tung 
Chou, formerly governor of the province of Kwangsi, 
who is the leader of such a group. He told me very 
eagerly of the studies he was carrying on and of the 
exercises which he went through each morning to culti- 
vate a spirit of contemplation by which to escape from 
the worries of life. The eagerness with which such men 
turn to any teacher who seems to promise spiritual satis- 
faction is a pathetic sign of an unsatisfied inward longing. 
Buddhism, like Confucianism, is responding to the in- 
vigorating currents of a new life in China, by an effort 
to regain its power and inspiration. 


3. Taoism 


We have seen the stirrings of a new life in religious 
Confucianism and in Buddhism. Does Taoism, the tradi- 
tional third member of the triad of Chinese religions, 
show similar signs of searching for freshened vigor and 
new activities? Are there signs of a spiritual quest among 
the followers of Lao-tzu? 


[158] 


Spiritual Quests 


As is well known, religious Taoism of the present time 
in China is by far the most superstitious of the forms of 
religion which the Chinese have developed and followed. 
Tibetan Lamaism alone is a more debased religion. With 
few exceptions, Taoist priests are altogether ignorant, and 
more, degenerate. Magic practises and devil worship are 
closely associated with Taoist temples. It is difficult to 
see how any sort of reform movement can renovate cur- 
rent Taoism. The critical and scientific spirit of the 
age is against the ignorant superstitions that, for the most 
part, form the basis of Taoist beliefs. Almost every sort 
of newspaper in China carries in the course of each year 
many articles pointing out the absurdity of popular super- 
stitions regarding feng-shui, notions regarding spirits of 
mountains and rivers, demonology, astrological concep- 
tions, and alchemistic practises, and the whole series of 
methods by which devotees seek the elixir of life and im- 
mortality. No one will complain if this program of popu- 
lar enlightenment is completely successful and the whole 
miserable magic of modern Taoism wiped out. Every- 
one in China, as well as in the West, will rejoice if the 
noble philosophy of Lao-tzu can be rescued from the 
hands of official Taoism and become again a subject for 
rational and intelligent study. But I know of at least 
one city in which the Taoist temple was completely reno- 
vated only a few years ago, and this was done on the 
initiative of the foremost scholar of the city, a city which 
is itself famous for the number of scholars whom it has 
produced. At the instigation of this noted literatus, the 
city fathers decided to repair this temple rather than 

[159] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


establish new schools of a modern style. A fund of sev- 
eral thousand dollars was raised to renovate the “City 
Temple.” I have never seen elsewhere such resplendent 
images as the god of literature, with his famous ver- 
milion pencil, and the spiritual ruler of the city in the 
underworld, with all his attendants. 

Numerous groups of Chinese thinkers are devoting 
themselves to special critical and appreciative study of 
Lao-tzu’s teaching, and it is fair to include them among 
those in China who in this day are on a quest for new 
sources of spiritual inspiration. A notable example is 
the well-known Admiral Ts’ai Ting-kan, who has de- 
voted himself for years to special studies of the Tao Tech 
Ching, and has recently published, at his own expense, a 
new edition with suggestive notes of his own. Admiral 
Ts’ai has studied in the West and brings the methods of 
historical and philosophic study which are in use there to 
his critical research into the religious philosophy of 
Lao-tzu. 

Another movement very directly related to the original 
philosophy of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu? is known by the 
name of the Tao Yuan, College of Tao, or Hall of 
Truth. It is not altogether free from what many would 
call superstitions, for it had its origin in the spiritism and | 
experiments with the occult which in more gross forms 
are characteristic of popular Taoism. The Chinese 
“planchette” or device through which communications 

1 These are the really great philosophers whose books form the 
first classics of Taoism and whose teachings have been so grossly 
misinterpreted and ,misued in the historical development of the 
Tao Chiao or popular Taoism. 


[160] 


Spiritual Quests 


from the spirit world are supposed to be received, has 
been made use of for centuries in wide circles by those 
desirous of knowing about their prospective fortunes. 
Western interest in psychological research and spiritistic 
séances has given a fresh impetus to groups of educated 
and intelligent people in China to experiment with this 
instrument. The planchette is of a very simple form, 
consisting merely of a stick about the size of a broom 
handle and a yard long, with a slighter bent stick set at 
right angles to the thicker one at the middle on one side. 
Two persons each take one end of the larger stick while 
the tip of the bent “pencil” rests in a tray of sand wherein 
ideograms can be traced as they are delivered under the 
influence of the “control.” | 

In the winter of 1920, an officer in the Chinese army 
at Tsinan, while playing with this planchette, was amazed 
to receive a complete book purporting to come from the 
Great First Cause. This book was entitled The North 
Pole True Scripture, meaning the pivotal teaching for 
the whole universe. The impression made upon the of- 
ficer, whose name was Liu Min-tseng, was so great that 
he and his friends determined thereafter to use the 
planchette only for serious revelations and for direc- 
tions from the unseen world. Out of these beginnings 
there has sprung the movement called the Tao Yuan, 
which has developed with surprising rapidity. Its tenets 
are very largely a syncretism of the five great religions— 
Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Mohammedanism, and 
Christianity. A few quotations’ froma small Tao Yuan 


1 Chinese Recorder, March 1923. 
[161] 


Acar est ett AN I Re Ot aan ee 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 
A ie AE a ae NS NON Ree aki. 


catechism will give most quickly the plan and purpose 
of this movement. 


1. What is the object of the Tao Yuan? 

The object of the Tao Yuan is the equal cultivation of the inner 
life and its outward expression. Generally speaking, the cultiva- 
tion of the inner life consists in meditation, and the cultivation of 
its outward expression consists in philanthropic work. 

2. What are the advantages of Meditation? 

Meditation purifies the heart and moderates the passions. It 
is the root of the cultivation of character and of the salvation of 
men. This the understanding all know. 

3. What is meant by Philanthropic Work? 

It is to carry on, without being emulous of vainglory, all kinds 
of merciful work, in which teaching and feeding (the needy) are 
regarded as of equal importance. 

4. The “Way” (Tao) of what religion does the Tao Yuan 
teach? 

It teaches the Great “Way” of the Source of All Things. It 
does not inquire what the advantages of any particular religion 
may be; but does its utmost to help each. 

5. How did the Tao Yuan arise? 

It was established by men influenced supernaturally by God, by 
means of the planchette. 

(The planchette cannot move of itself; it is neither brownie 
nor sprite; nor has it been evolved by science or electric power. 
It is genuine, unalloyed, and has sprung from the rightful bounds 
of the “Tao.” Before the planchette was known, there were men 
whose spiritual nature was related to the Divine as intimately as 
is made possible by the planchette. Such were the Founders of 
the Five Great Religions.) 

6. Who is the God worshiped by the Tao Yuan? 

He is the Primeval Father together with the Founders of the 
Five Great Religions—Christianity, Mohammedanism, Confucian- 
ism, Buddhism, and Taoism. 


[162] 


Spiritual Quests 


The movement is now well organized and is spreading 
rapidly throughout China. In June, 1922, there were 
thirteen cities in which Tao Yuan headquarters were 
established and over twelve hundred active devotees. 
With a systematic organization supported by monthly 
magazines and other forms of publicity, the movement 
has undoubtedly spread to much wider circles by the 
present time. Like every sort of eclectic religion, the 
movement has obvious weaknesses. On the other hand, 
it is certainly significant that there is such an endeavor 
to bring together the best of all the great religions at 
present working in China. The spirit of tolerance and 
mutual appreciation characteristic of the devotees is cer- 
tainly not to be condemned. A number of Christian 
Chinese are more or less closely associated with the move- 
ment as well as representatives of the other religions 
which have been mentioned. Most of those associated 
together do not give up their own particular religious 
views; they regard the movement as spreading general 
religious truth, the common religious convictions held by 
all. Particularly good points in the movement are its 
distinct emphasis on practical social philanthropy and 
the friendliness which it cultivates among its own circles 
and between its own groups and all others, whether re- 
ligiously inclined or not, who are interested in social 
service in China. The movement can already be credited 
with successful emphasis on stricter moral standards 
among official classes. The spiritualistic elements are, of 
course, a notable weakness. It is evident that the men 
and the doctrines of this movement must be patiently 

[163] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


and sympathetically studied by the representatives of 
other religions and by all those who are interested in 
bringing to the Chinese a fresh religious dynamic. Al- 
though an eclectic system, the emphasis upon the Tao 
relates it distinctly to the teaching of Lao-tzu and jus- 
tifies us in labeling it as a spiritual quest within Taoist — 
circles. | 


4. The Hsiao Chiao Men or Smaller Religious Sects 


From the earliest times, Chinese religious life has been, 
characterized by a large number of cliques and societies 
organized about a religious nucleus, but outside of ‘the 
major religious institutions and their development. In 
every Chinese community today there are men and women 
known among their fellows as Shan Jen or “good people,” 
who are distinguished for their high moral character and 
their support of good works for the public welfare. | They 
are persons who have not found spiritual satisfaction in 
the established faiths and who represent real searchers 
after truth. Many, if not most, of the earnest and serious 
religious people of China are found in such groups. A 
number of Chinese from these sects have been led into 
Christianity, led by their lifelong eagerness for truth and 
goodness to make inquiry as to what the new faith has 
to offer. I think of one such whom I knew, Mr. Hou 
Sheng-ch’ing, from the little village of Pang Chia Chuang 
in western Shantung. He was the leader of a sect of 
this sort that met regularly in his home for worship 
and for meditation on things of the spirit and was him-. 


[164] 


Spiritual Quests 


self devoted to activities for the social good of his village 
community. On a trip to Tientsin, he was told of the 
preacher of a new teaching of love and service—the Way 
of Jesus—and was interested to make ‘earnest inquiries 
regarding the truth which they claimed to know. Upon his 
invitation, American missionaries went to his home, where 
they were very soon invited to conduct regular services. 
During the famine of 1878, Mr. Hou assisted the mis- 
sionaries in distributing the meager relief which was all 
that was possible in those days. Inquirers attracted to 
his home formed the nucleus out of which a Christian 
work developed which soon became one of the most im- 
portant stations of the North China Mission of the 
American Board. This work developed into a complete 
missionary plant with churches and schools for boys and 
girls and a hospital which was moved in 1914 to the 
near-by district of Teh Chow, from which it ministers 
uplift, healing, and salvation to a wide region. In other 
regions in Shantung, Christian missionaries have been 
able to bring spiritual guidance to people of such sects, 
which led in some cases to the adoption of Christianity by 
whole groups. The work of Dr. Hunter Corbett, the well- 
known veteran itinerant missionary, in this field was 
particularly successful. 

As an example of the practises of these groups, let 
me give the story of one of my former students, Ch’én 
Tieh-shang, who is now a Christian pastor, active in the 
Chinese Home Missionary Movement. Mr. Ch’én has 
told me of the little sect of which his father was leader. 
The company had regular times for meeting together, 

[165] 


FTN Heat aka ANNO NIE Nae he ete MME ee CAT MSY 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 

a a MLN ENGeaR es SSNS) rue Rie. WANA ert, Oe PU eIe 
when by means of meditation, prayer, and the burning of 
incense they sought immediate communion with the 
Primal Father and Heavenly Spirit. The members of 
this society were all vegetarians and followed rules of 
living based on the ethical practises of Confucianism sup- 
plemented by the Buddhist doctrines of the “heart” or 
inner life. There was absolute sincerity in this company 
and a conscious connection with a definite divine dynamic 
that brought strength for every-day living and guided the 
entire conduct of life. Mr. Ch’én and his father later 
became Christians, finding in the spiritual life that came 
to them through discipleship with Jesus the fulfilment of 
the purposes which they had been trying to carry out 
before their acquaintance with missionaries. 


Professor Lewis Hodous, who has made what are 
probably the most careful recent studies into Chinese re- 
ligious life, gives an interesting account of these sects in 
his article on “Non-Christian Religious Movements in 
China” in the volume on The Christian Occupation of 
China prepared by the Survey Committee of the China 
Continuation Committee of China. Dr, Hodous says: 

“These sects spring up quite naturally, especially at a 
time of national trouble or local difficulty involving the 
well-being of society or certain sections of it. Many of 
the present sects are survivals of sects long existing in 
China. Their names are often changed, but the society is 
the same. 

“These sects were organized for some definite purpose, 

[166] 


Spiritual Quests 


self-protection, protection of the social ideals, of the social 
life, of the nation against a decadent dynasty or the 
hated foreigner, the attainment of peace and content- 
ment, to gain power over the spirit world and assist in 
warding off disease, calamity, famine, floods, and the at- 
tainment of long life here and hereafter. They have as 
their aims the attainment of values which are of great 
importance to certain groups. Hence they often manifest 
a high degree of religious feeling. 

“They are organized not only about some desirable 
ideal, but this is usually embodied in some god. Often 
it is the name and influence of the founder that holds 
them together.” 

Not all of these sects are on such an elevated spiritual 
plane as has been indicated in the examples mentioned 
above. Some of them emphasize political activity, and 
for this reason the government in the past has been sus- 
picious of them and often hostile, endeavoring to sup- 
press them. One of the strongest, which was founded 
in the Ming dynasty, is the Tsai Li Chiao which forbids 
the use of wine and opium and observes the rituals of 
Buddhism, the practises of Taoism and the morals of 
Confucianism. Most of the members of this group are 
of the lower classes. Another society, the Chin Tan 
Chiao, or sect of the philosopher’s stone, makes much of 
universal love, but includes in its practises many that 
have astrological and alchemistic significance. Magic is 
resorted to by some of these groups; others stress heal- 
ing and the relief of mental ailments; while for others 

[167] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


philanthropic enterprises are of primary importance. In 
the knowledge and use of hypnotism and of psychological 
methods, these sects resemble those who support faith- 
healing and the Coué movement in the West. Professor 
Hodous finds these societies in practically all parts of 
China. Many of them include not only the simpler folk, 
the poor and needy of the land, but numbers of the gentry 
and official classes as well. 

Chinese religious psychology will never be fully under- 
stood until more careful analytic studies have been made 
of the religious beliefs and practises of these sects as well 
as of the religious psychology of those who follow the 
standard triad religions of China. Professor Albert C. 
Parker, of Shantung Christian University, has made 
some interesting preliminary studies in this field. His 
conclusions may be summarized somewhat as follows: + 

“There is a good-sized body of people whose religious 
life is almost nothing. From five to twenty-five per cent 
of the people, or from twenty million to one hundred mil- 
lion people, profess to each of the following statements: 
they have no religion; never go to a temple to worship, 
their only purpose in going to a temple is to see a fair or 
theater; they never have any use for a priest; never 
pray at temples or in their homes nor even to their an- 
‘cestors; never have given money for building or repair- 
ing temples, and their religion never costs them anything; 
they do not worship at home nor at the graves of their 
ancestors, they do not know of the existence of religious 
books; they say that there is no result from doing good 


1 Chinese Recorder, August and September, 1922. 
[168] 


Spiritual Quests 


or evil; that men have no souls; and that they have no 
idea what the correct answer to many of these ques- 
tions is.” 

There is a small percentage of people who say they 
pray for forgiveness, whose purpose in living is to be 
good, who say men must repent to have their sins for- 
given, who believe there is only one god and no evil spirits. 

The following beliefs are among those subscribed to 
by more than two thirds of those who answered Pro- 
fessor Parker’s questions: 


There is a way to escape from the results of sin. 
There are many gods. 

Gods can help men. 

Gods send trouble to men. 

There is one god who is over all the others. 
Souls live after the body dies. 

There is a government in the next world. 
Souls of dead men may punish living men. 


More than half of those questioned subscribed to these 
beliefs or practises: 


A man can be a Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist all at the 
same time. 

He goes to worship at a temple less than five times a year. 

He goes to several different temples—Buddhist predominating. 

He prays at temples—chiefly to the temple gods. 

He prays chiefly for prosperity and the healing of disease. 

He worships in his home about twice a month. 

He prays to his ancestors. 

He worships at the graves of his ancestors about twice a year. 
The worship is about the same as that in the home. 


[169] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


5. Hsin Ch’ao and Scientific Religion 


I have tried to picture something of the renewal of 
spiritual quest within the distinctly established religious 
circles in China. A final question must be considered. 
Does Hsin Ch’ao—the promising movement toward re- 
newed intellectual fertility and creative achievement— 
have any direct bearing upon the religious interests of 
the Chinese? The general answer to such a question is 
certainly in the affirmative; but such direct relation to 
religious interests may well be negative and destructive 
as well as positive and constructive, and it will be 
necessary to analyze particular phases of the general 
answer. 

The strong, critical, and scientific spirit which under- 
lies Hsin Ch’ao might well be expected to result in anti- 
religious tendencies, and such is actually the fact. No 
exact percentages can be given on this point. My own 
impression is that at least one third of the leaders of 
Hsin Chao are either indifferent or hostile to religion. 
Two years ago, an active anti-Christian movement sud- 
denly developed among undergraduate students and 
spread rapidly through most of the Government institu- 
tions in China. The English philosopher, Bertrand Rus- 
sell, lectured in China, chiefly at Peking, during the winter 
of 1921 and 1922'and was invited in January, 1922, to 
present his specific views on religion at a joint meeting 
of the Young China Association and the Philosophical 
Club of Peking Students. The caricature of religious be- 


[170] 


Spiritual Quests 


lief and the distinctly anti-religious views, presented by 
Mr. Russell, stimulated Chinese hostility to the meeting 
of the World Student Christian Federation, and to the 
National Christian Conference of China which were to 
be held in April and May respectively and were being 
widely advertised in educated circles at the time. A group 
of radical socialists in Shanghai, who wished to give pub- 
licity to their anti-capitalist views, took advantage of the 
opportunity by linking Christian and religious enterprises 
with the capitalistic organization of society, and in- 
augurated what soon became a violent anti-religious and 
anti-Christian outbreak. Proclamations were issued 
against religion, and local anti-religious clubs were 
formed to rescue the student classes from the oppressive 
burden of religious doctrines and dogmas of every sort. 
Hot-headed youngsters led the attack. Very few mem- 
bers of university faculties or mature scholars joined in 
the movement. In many cases, such men pointed out the 
weak reasoning of the more or less flamboyant student 
proclamations and protested against what they claimed 
to be a dangerous infringement of the constitutional right 
to religious freedom. Both non-Christian and non-re- 
ligious leaders shared in such protests. 

The specific criticisms which this movement leveled at 
Christianity will be considered in the next chapter. The 
period of active propaganda for the movement was short- 
lived. Its chief effect was probably to give increased 
publicity to the two notable religious meetings against 
which it desired to protest. Still it undoubtedly repre- 


[171] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


sented a tendency among Chinese students which still 
continues and is the inevitable result of new acquaintance 
with scientific rationalism. Moreover, the criticisms of 
religion and of Christianity ought not to be carelessly dis- 
regarded. It is probably wrong to claim that this active 
hostility to religion was directly due to Hsin Ch’ao. The 
movement does undoubtedly encourage a spirit of superi- 
ority to superstition and to religion based on intellectual 
grounds and on indifference. On the other hand, one 
must, in fairness, note that Hsin Ch’ao is not necessarily 
either hostile or indifferent to religion, for among its 
recognized leaders there are some active and earnest 
Christian men and women as well as many who support 
other forms of religious faith. 


Dr. Hu Shih-chih, to many the most significant per- 
sonality in the Hsin Ch’ao movement, claims as the faith 
by which he himself lives a scientific religion very much 
resembling the “religion of humanity” of Comte. Dr. 
Fiu refused to take any part in the anti-religious move- 
ment that has been mentioned above, claiming that he 
was a religious man, although he distinctly expressed his 
disbelief in any personal God. The “great society” or 
society of mankind is for him the super-personal power 
in devotion to which he finds inspiration and “spiritual 
satisfaction.” Disbelieving in personal immortality, Dr. 
Hu has written in noble language of the eternal “larger 
self,” that is, the socialized self, the life of humanity, to 
which every individual contributes whatever he is, 

[172] 


Spiritual Quests 


whether bad or good, and through which the individual 
is absorbed into social immortality.? 

The Honorable Ts’ai Yuan-pei,; until recently Chan- 
cellor of the National University of Peking, was, so far 
as I know, the only notable intellectual leader of modern 
China who definitely associated himself with the anti- 
religious movement. Dr. Ts’ai presided at anti-religious 
meetings called by the students of Peking and in other 
ways gave public approval to the movement. But it is 
interesting to note that Chancellor Ts’ai’s hostility was 
directed against the superstition and dogmatism of tradi- 
tional religion rather than against the inner inspirations 
which the true religious spirit seeks. Dr. Ts’ai is himself 
a leader in a definite movement to provide a scientific 
substitute for religion. He recognizes the need of the 
human heart for the emotional satisfaction usually asso- 
ciated with religious values. He believes that the con- 
ception of “The Beautiful” is a sounder basis for them 
than can be found in traditional religions. He advocates 
esthetics as a scientific substitute for religion, a philosophy 
that is free from irrational dogmatism and -unscientific 
superstitions. It is worth noting that he has been, him- 
self, a careful student of the religious views of the 
Chinese. While a student at the University of Leipzig, 
he contributed an article on the Chinese conception of 
God to a book prepared by Dr. Nathan Soderblom, at that 


1 Readers who are interested in tracing the views of Dr. Hu 
and other leaders regarding religion should study the series of 
articles entitled, “What the Chinese Are Thinking about Chris- 
tianity and Religion,” to be found in the Chinese Recorder for 
October and December, 1922, and May, 1923. 


[173] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


time Professor of the Philosophy of Religion at Leipzig, 
now the Archbishop of the Swedish Lutheran Church. 

Chancellor Ts’ai recognizes man’s need for emotional 
inspiration. His scientific training and the influence of 
his experience while a student in Germany and France 
have made him a devoted follower of Comte and of Euro- 
pean scientists and philosophers. With some of them, 
Dr, Ts’ai is inclined to react against the undue moralizing 
characteristic of so many Chinese thinkers. He believes 
that he is able, through esthetic appreciation, to secure 
the value of synthetic experience usually associated with 
religion as well as to find inspiration from noble and 
refined ideals. Chancellor Ts’ai has great influence be- 
cause he is one of the few mature Chinese scholars to be 
found among the Hsin Ch’ao leaders, one who was trained 
under the old Chinese classical system and who is also 
liberal and modern-minded. He has recently resigned his 
university post because of political hostility to his plans. 
During his administration, the National University of 
Peking had developed in a remarkable way. A group of 
earnest-minded leaders had been brought to the univer- 
sity, who became the center of energy for the entire Hsin 
Ch’ao. For the past five years members of the faculty 
as well as the students of the National University have 
been the outstanding instigators of new intellectual ac- 
tivity for the whole of China. 

You will surely note that while Dr. Hu and Chancellor 
Ts’ai may, in one sense, be regarded as anti-religious, they 
represent, each in his own way, an endeavor to be thor- 
oughly loyal to scientific spirit and method and, at the 

[174] 


Spiritual Quests 


same time, to provide for securing the inspiration, moral 
dynamic, and inner poise and peace which are usually 
found in the highest types of religious experience. I 
believe it is not untrue to say that the Hsin Cl’ao, even 
in its attack upon conventional religion, represents a real 
spiritual quest as it seeks to make use of rationalism and 
science in the search for ultimate truth. 


6. Christianity and the Spiritual Quest 


Ranging between the endeavor to revive ancient doc- 
trines and traditional religious practises on the one hand 
and modern experiments in eclecticism and in scientific 
_ substitutes for religion on the other, we see the Chinese 
starting with fresh interest upon the long quest for spir- 
-itual nourishment and salvation. Is it not plain that 
Christianity in China has a fair chance only as it seeks 
more generously, sympathetically, and critically than it 
ever has done in the past, to understand the religious psy- 
chology that underlies these spiritual quests of the 
Chinese, seeks with patient devotion to find contacts in 
indigenous Chinese religious teaching for the gospel of 
Jesus Christ, and interprets its message in a terminology 
more familiar to and better understood by their yearn- 
ing hearts? 


This modern spiritual quest presents the most direct 
‘challenge to Christianity in China. There must be sym- 
pathy with the questing spirit, while the weaknesses and 
incompleteness of the old systems that are being revived 


[175] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


| must be pointed out. Sympathizing with the desire of 
' Neo-Confucians for a fresher moral dynamic, one must 
point to the facts of moral decay in China which demon- 
strate some lack in a teaching that was in ideal noble and 
sound. Christianity is challenged to produce character 
more effectively moral than can be gained through Con- 
fucianism alone. So this new Confucian quest may be 
fulfilled in the complete message of Jesus. 
Neo-Buddhism presents the challenge from another 
angle. Here the effort is toward deeper spiritual satis- 
faction and an inward renewal of the spirit that will 
' work itself out in truer conduct. The likenesses to Chris- 
_ tianity are evident. The movement must be studied by 
the Christiaii; he needs a fresher understanding of the 
phrases, formule, and ritual through which the Buddhist 
faith has expressed itself with satisfaction to millions 
of Chinese. Whatever points of similarity are found 
need to be developed wherever possible; familiar Bud- 
dhist phrases should be used through which to interpret 
the Christian message, so that it may be more readily 
understood and appreciated by the spiritual-minded of 
China. At the same time the difficulties before the move- 
ment need to be pointed out; the decay of Buddhism in 
China is stich that one may question whether any move- 
ment of reform from within could ever be successful. 
‘The Christian is challenged to use all the wisdom and 
tact available in order to unite sympathy with criticism. 
It is necessary to point out, not only the likenesses, but the 
vital differences between Buddhist and Christian faith. 
Here again the challenge to Christianity is to present 


[176] 


Spiritual Quests 
Christ’s message freed from the encumbrances of tradi- 
tion and denominationalism—the simple way of life 
which Jesus taught, the renewal of life in intimate rela- 
tion to God. 

In relation to the new Taoism there is needed a keen 
apologetic to show the ineffectiveness of every eclectic 
religious system that has been tried in the past. With real 
sympathy for the attempt that the Tao Yuan is making, 
the Christian needs to show the insufficiency of a faith 
that is not based on sound convictions. The problem is 
to combine tolerance with personal conviction: A fresh 
study of the movement is needed as well as of the Taoism 
which underlies it, in order to show the ineffectiveness in 
the direction of life of the vague spiritual generalities that 
characterize the movement. Historical evidence must be 
cited to show how easily religious methods based on 
spiritism degenerate into superstition. The gross debase- 
ment of current Taoism is sufficient evidence to show 
that something radically different is needed. 

With relation to the smaller religious sects the chal- 
lenge is once more to an intelligent study and sympa- 
thetic understanding on the part of Christians. The 
yearning heart should never be offended by brusque at- 
tack. Probably more can be learned of the religious psy- 
chology of the Chinese through these sects than in any 
other way. Here too the fulfilling power of Christianity 
may perform a large service. 

Against the anti-Christian movements of recent years 
Christianity needs a more vigorous defense. Such a 
defense must be found in a fearless facing of scientific 


[177] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


truths and a willingness to consider adequately all the 
facts of human experience. The charge that Christianity 
is the foreign religion can be met only by an emphasis 
upon the indigenous Chinese Church. The best defense 
against the charges that Christianity is linked with the 
capitalistic organization of society will be found in re- 
covering the spirit of Jesus in its teaching and by linking 
the Christian task more evidently than has yet been done 
with the interest of the whole social body, and with the 
uplift of those classes that are too often disregarded 
and rejected. 


The spiritual quest of the Chinese today should be a 
tremendous incentive to the Christian task. The oppor- 
tunity and the difficulty of meeting it reenforce the chal- 
lenge. Christianity should be more effective because it is 
met by rival claimants to the spiritual allegiance of the 
Chinese. The task is not to be accomplished by easy self- 
confidence. By means of self-criticism and a humble 
search for the essential message of Jesus, Christianity 
must prove itself more truly fitted to meet the varied 
phases of China’s spiritual need than any other faith. 
More than ever before the Christian enterprise needs the 
guiding spirit of the Master she follows, who came not 
to destroy but to fulfil. Christianity has a chance in 
China if it can show itself to be “a more excellent way” 
and can prove its claim to fulfil more completely than any 
other faith the deepest and most far-reaching longings 
of the human soul. 


[178] 


VI 
Christianity Creative 


Any exact observer of modern China, whatever his 
own views regarding religion or his attitude toward 
Christianity, would find it necessary to take serious note 
of the Christian movement in Chinese life today. In 
fact, no picture of present-day China that omits this fea- 
ture can be considered complete or true. Christianity 1s 
not only one of the essential facts, but it is a creative force 
which must be taken into account as one looks forward 
into China’s future. 

The purpose of this book has been to present the essen- 
tial social, intellectual, and spiritual situations in relation 
to which the Christian enterprise must be conducted. In 
the present chapter the endeavor will be made to focus 
attention upon the Christian enterprise itself. We shall 
consider the achievements, the problems, and the future 
outlook and influence of Christianity in China and sug- 
gest ways in which the American Christian can co- 
operate in this enterprise. 


1. Christian Achievement 


Christianity is not a recent arrival in China. It has had 

a long and varied history full of vital interest. This 

still awaits the historian, who, equipped with scientific 

acumen, trained in observation, and inspired by sympathy 

for the religious aspirations of the human race, will pro- 
[179] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


duce one of the epics of the world. Such a history would 
begin with the story of the Nestorian missionaries who 
first brought the gospel of Jesus to the Chinese in the 
seventh century. It would describe the success of their 
work in the succeeding centuries, and would seek to ex- 
plain the causes which led to the merging of the movement _ 
with Mohammedanism and Buddhism and its final dis- 
appearance as an independent force. It would trace next 
the development of Christianity in the Far East under 
the Mongol conquerors who followed Jenghis Khan. 
Then it would proceed to describe Roman Catholic mis- 
sions which have been at work with varying fortunes 
since the latter part of the sixteenth century. The con- 
cluding chapters would give a detailed account of the 
modern Protestant activity inaugurated by Robert Morri- 
son in 1807. 

This chapter is not the place for such an extensive 
study, but it is worth while to have suggested the survey 
which should form the proper background for the fol- 
lowing discussion. The complete evidence of facts and 
figures cannot be given, but it will be well to present 
a-brief summary of the Christian achievement in China, 
since this must form the foundation for intelligent discus- 
sion of the particular problems before us. 

The Christian community in China if measured in fig- 
ures alone would seem to be so small as to be almost 
negligible. The estimated two million Roman Catholic 
Christians increase regularly. It is probable that over one 
hundred thousand adherents are added each year. Roman 
Catholic methods are often criticized on the grounds that 

[180] 


Christianity Creative 


they rely too much on foreign protection and show a 
willingness to accept any sort of convert. The charge has 
often been made that financial reward is held out to 
those who become converts. Catholic leaders answer this 
criticism by saying that they no more expect. the first 
generation of Christians to develop a high level of moral 
character than did St. Paul. They claim that once.a 
man is converted, though he may be a thief and a swindler, 
Christian grace sets to work and within three generations 
real Christian morality and spirituality bear fruit. There 
is no question but that the orphanages, schools, and. hos- 
pitals maintained by the Roman Catholics in China have 
been of real service. In the last few years the Roman 
Catholics of the United States have entered China and 
are injecting into the work the push and enterprise of 
American Catholicism. It would be well if Protestant 
missionaries would more generously recognize the great 
amount of good that has been done by their Roman 
Catholic colleagues. 

The Eastern Orthodox Church grew up in connection 
with the diplomatic service of the Russian government 
established in Peking in 1717. The well-known Russian 
colony in the northeast corner of Peking still occupies the 
land set aside for this mission by the Emperor K’ang Hsi 
(1662-1722). One can hear there from Chinese voices 
the characteristic and beautiful Russian singing. While 
there are several chapels of this Church in the neighbor- 
hood of Peking, the entire community of believers can- 
not be more than six thousand. 

The Protestant churches give four hundred thousand 


[181] : 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


as the figure for their membership, but these are all com- 
municants. Including the persons under Christian in- 
struction and the children of Christian families, the 
Protestant Christian community probably numbers about 
one million. In comparison with the usual estimate of the 
total population of China—four hundred million—it is 
plain that the Christians constitute less than one per cent 
of the population. It would be wrong, however, to esti- 
mate Christian achievement by such a comparison. 
Christianity has exerted an influence in China quite out 
of proportion to the number of church members. Protes- 
tant Christianity, in particular, has released forces which 
are influencing many phases of Chinese life. 

Certain well-defined emphases making for progress in 
modern China were initiated and fostered by the Chris- 
tian movement. Among these may be mentioned: 

(1) Medical service. The work of the Christian physi- 
cian is recognized by everyone. Peter Parker, the pio- 
neer medical missionary who arrived in China in 1834, 
has been fotlowed by a noble company of men and women 
who, in devotion to Jesus Christ, have brought to thou- 
sands of Chinese relief from suffering, and healing and 
strength. They have established numerous hospitals and 
have opened dispensaries. They have founded medical 
schools for the training of Chinese physicians. They 
have translated books which imparted the latest medical 
knowledge of the West. They have inaugurated cam- 
paigns for sanitation, hygiene, and public health. Above 
all, they have lifted the medical practitioner from a seeker 
for private gain to the dignity of regarding himself as 

[182] 


Christianity Creative 


the public servant and the guardian of public health. 

The example of Christian medical service has stimu- 
lated the Chinese to similar activities of their own. The 
Pei Yang Hospital and Medical College, founded by the 
great Chinese statesman, Li Hung Chang, was one of 
the first Chinese medical schools. It was frankly an 
endeavor to reproduce with Chinese support the medical 
work of Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, beloved physician of 
the London Missionary Society in Tientsin. This hospital 
still stands directly across the street from the Christian 
institution which was its model. Furthermore, the great 
work of the China Medical Board has been made possible 
by the long preparation carried on by Christian physicians 
and by their present hearty cooperation in its program. 
Today the Christian physician and the trained nurse have 
still a large work to do, for only about one per cent of the 
people of China are touched by modern medicine. If 
their services should be curtailed, not only would the 
Chinese suffer, but the world would be endangered by 
the epidemics which would spread along the highways of 
modern commerce. 

(2) Agricultural service. We should not fail to note 
here what has already been mentioned, that the Christian 
enterprise has been responsible for bringing to rural com- 
munities improved methods of seed selection and the in- 
troduction of new products which have in certain in- 
stances improved economic conditions on a large scale. 
The beginnings of the dairy business can be traced to 
Christian sources which have encouraged efforts to im- 
prove stock and to develop a larger milk capacity in the 

[183] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


native cow. In gardening and farming, in fruit culture 
and forestry, Christian institutions have been pioneers. 

(3) Social service. From the very beginning the Chris- 
tian enterprise sought not only to minister to the poor 
and needy, but it filled the members with a social passion 
to improve their homes, neighborhoods, and country. 
The Christians and preachers have been leaders in social 
betterment. The record of service in times of famine 
and flood is a long and worthy one. At present the Chris- 
tian Church is leading in making the necessary adjust- 
ments in the struggle between Labor and Capital which is 
looming up in China. A startling commentary on the 
moral need of China, as well as a recognition of the 
place which Christians have won for themselves in 
Chinese life is found in the fact that during the recent 
North China famine the contributors frequently refused 
to give until assured that the management of the funds 
subscribed would be placed in the hands of men of Chris- 
tian integrity and not under the control of those subject 
to political influence. In spite of their criticism of re- 
ligion and of Christianity, many leaders of the Intellec- 
tual Renaissance, Hsin Ch’ao, have acknowledged that 
they find among Christians a clearer understanding of 
their social program and a heartier willingness to sup- | 
port it than among others. 

(4) Popular education. The new conceptions of edu- 
cation of the people which have been accepted by the 
Chinese generally and are advocated by leaders in educa- 
tion today had their beginnings in the humble schools 
for boys and girls with which the Christian work was 


[184] 


Christianity Creative 


inaugurated after 1842. P. W. Kuo, President of the 
National Southeastern University, says, “It must be 
admitted that for some time the schools of missionaries 
were practically the only institutions where some form 
of modern knowledge was taught, and for this reason they 
may justly claim to have been the first modern educational 
institutions in China.” + 

(5) Bible translation. The “Kuan Hud’ or Mandarin 
Bible, the Bible in the language of the common people, 
has been the precursor of the movement for adult educa- 
tion. There are certainly thousands of Chinese today 
who could never have learned to read, had it not been 
for the patient Christian teachers who guided their awk- 
ward and stumbling feet into the pathway of knowledge 
of spiritual truth. Probably no one can estimate how 
many of the well-known Chinese leaders of today come 
from homes in which the first real help towards intel- 
lectual liberation came through the reading of the Bible. 
Even in this day of widened social interests on the part 
of all liberal leaders in China, Christian forces are still 
in the lead in willing, eager service and devotion to the 
humblest sort of people. The leaders of the Intellectual 
Renaissance with their large program for social recon- 
struction that shall include all classes in China have yet 
to inspire their followers with a willingness to do the 
actual drudgery and routine of such service in out-of-the- 
way places and for humble folk. The patient, unknown, 
humble workers for the lowly are the glory of the Chris- 
tian enterprise. 


1 The Chinese System of re Hees P. W. Kuo, 
185 : 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


(6) Scientific education. Whatever of conflict may 
appear today between science and religion in China, it is 
‘to the eternal credit of the Protestant Christian enter- 
prise that it was instrumental in introducing modern 
pedagogy and the study of science. Take, for example, 
the work of the well-known Dr. Calvin W. Mateer, out 
of whose boys’ school at Teng Chou Fu in Shantung, has 
grown Shantung Christian University with its beautiful 
and well-equipped plant at Tsinan, the capital of the 
province. His students are to be found in many places 
throughout China as leaders in the study of science and 
mathematics. For many years Christian institutions were 
the only ones in which a Chinese could secure any sort 
of scientific training. The recent notable development of 
education in government and private institutions should 
not obscure the fact that to the Christian enterprise be- 
longs the credit of inaugurating such important work and 
carrying it through the time when it was unpopular. 

(7) The liberation of womanhood. No Christian 
achievement is more generally recognized than the service 
rendered to the womanhood of China. In missionary 
circles, there was, from the first, recognition of the equal- 
ity, if not the superiority, of women; for many of the 
wisest, most capable, and most devoted missionaries were 
women who took, as women naturally do everywhere in 
pioneer society, a place of equality with men in both the 
councils and activities connected with the work. Out of 
my own experience, I call to mind the group of noble 
women in the mission to which my father belonged, one 
of them his sister, who, in sane judgment and creative 


[186] 


Christianity Creative 


imagination, often made the most important contribution 
to the solution of problems that came up. The Chinese 
women taught by such a group came to take, in spite of 
the traditional Chinese attitude, a place of natural equal- 
ity and influence in church councils. Certainly in church 
meetings there was a remarkable preparation for the 
democratic conduct of affairs which the Chinese formally 
adopted with their revolution in 1911. 

The foreign woman missionary assigned specifically 
to the task of bringing the Christian inspiration to her 
sisters was often the one through whom the most effec- 
tive contacts were made. In innumerable instances Chris- 
tian inspiration has found its way into the home and to 
the men of the family through the women. The general 
education of women began when the Western woman 
gathered a group of her Chinese sisters and started pa- 
tiently to guide their eyes and fingers along the rows of 
characters. Through catechism and gospel sheets she 
opened the way to knowledge which had been closed in 
China to all women except the favored few. With all 
its effort, the modern movement for education has not 
yet provided colleges for women equal in intellectual 
standards to the two under Christian auspices—Ginling 
at Nanking and Yen Ching in Peking. The graduates 
of these colleges are to be found in many parts of China, 
not only in Christian work, but also in important posi- 
tions in government schools for women. Christian 
schools throughout China took up the anti-footbinding cru- 
sade decades ago, early demonstrating the usefulness of 
women with liberated bodies as well as freed minds. 


[187] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


No one can estimate the influence upon public opinion 
throughout China that Christian women have had 
through their homes. It would not be far wrong to claim 
that the salvation of China depends more upon her women 
than upon any other group. For this task, Christian en- 
terprise has not only done more in the pioneer days of 
the past than any other medium, but is at the present still 
the leading agency. 

(8) The democratic spirit in politics. It would be a 
mistake to claim too much for the influence of the doc- 
trines of freedom embodied in Protestant Christianity or 
to make the Christian community responsible for the 
revolution. But it is true that the ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion from the earliest beginnings provided a place in 
which democratic convictions could be discussed and 
democratic methods worked out. Avoiding partisan testi- 
mony from either missionary or Christian witnesses, one 
may quote the striking statement of a French writer, M. 
Rodes, in his Fin des Manchous, who, without any hesi- 
tation, attributes to Protestantism “a very large responsi- 
bility in the 1911 revolution.” + Further evidence on this 
point is to be found in the position and influence of in- 
dividual Christians in political life. The revolutionary 
hero, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, although his Christianity today 
may be questionable, got his early training under Chris- 
tian influences, and at certain times of his career he has 
been associated, though somewhat loosely, with Chris- 
tian organizations. There is no question, however, of the 


1 Quoted by Professor Philippe de Vargas in an unprinted 
paper on “China’s Quest for a New Soul.” 
[188 


Christianity Creative 


Christian devotion of Mr. C. T. Wang, formerly Vice 
President of the Senate and influential delegate at the 
Paris Conference, and more recently the successful com- 
missioner who represented China in receiving Shantung 
from the hands of Japan. Dr. W. W. Yen, until re- 
cently minister of foreign affairs, is another who has 
maintained active Christian connections throughout his 
career. Another prime minister, Dr. Wang Ch’ung-hui, 
now the Chinese judge on the International Peace Court 
at the Hague, is also an active Christian. 

The story of General Feng Yii-hsiang, one of the best 
military leaders of China, is well known and needs no 
more than a brief reference here. Impressed by the 
Christian devotion and sweetness of spirit shown by 
Miss Morrill, one of the martyrs of Paotingfu, he was 
converted to Christianity in one of the evangelistic cam- 
paigns conducted by Dr. Mott. He has taken his Chris- 
tian duties seriously, endeavoring to conduct all his ac- 
tivities on Christian principles. Many of his officers are 
not only professing Christians, but they have become 
teachers and preachers of the word, the effectiveness of 
their work being testified to by many missionaries. 

(9) Individual regeneration, The Christian achieve- 
ment suggested in such a list rests, in every case, upon 
individual renewal. “Personal evangelism” is the root 
from which has sprung the expanding program of social 
service. A book should be written on the “twice born” 
men and women of China. Every missionary can give 
individual cases in vivid illustration of this truth. The 
heart and life won to Jesus becomes through Him a “new 


[189] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


creature” dynamic with love. Personal salvation and the 
social gospel meet at this point. Each is involved in 
the other. 

Let me give as illustration the story of one family in 
which there is represented nearly every one of the aspects 
of Christian achievement that have been mentioned. 

About 1870 when missionary work was just beginning 
in North China, almost the only contacts possible were 
those made through the children of the poor and needy 
who could be persuaded to run the risks of association 
with Christian foreigners. To such a school for small 
boys in a missionary’s home there came a lad from a 
decadent Manchu family. He was bright and eager and 
learned the reading, arithmetic, and geography that his 
devoted teacher taught. The school grew up with the 
boys, as they carried it from primary to higher grades, 
until it became a real high school. Our lad became a 
leader among his fellows and decided to prepare himself 
for Christian preaching. 

Turn for a moment to a similar school for girls. The 
foreign principal of the school was teacher, mother, and 
inspirer to the girls who came to her for every detail of 
their daily living. In the group was a little girl whose 
poverty-stricken Manchu brother was eking out the tiny 
pension, with which the Chinese advisers to the Manchu 
conquerors had cursed the tribe, by teaching Chinese to 
the foreign lady. As the girl grew up, she became a 
leader among her fellows, helping to establish the spirit 
and standards of a school and student body which even- 

[190] 


Christianity Creative 


tually developed into a strong academy for girls. When 
it was time to plan for the boy’s own home, foreign as 
well as Chinese matrimonial go-betweens suggested that 
he and the girl unite their fortunes, and so a Christian 
home was begun. The man went out to be a preacher in 
country districts and was for many years in active 
service. He and his wife had found personal salvation in 
the Christian gospel. It meant renewal of life for each 
of them, and as they devoted themselves to Christian 
service, they carried the good gifts they had freely re- 
ceived to others, sharing every phase of a widening ser- 
vice. Soon children began to fill the home, a fine com- 
pany of four boys and a daughter. The home became one 
which illustrated to all who knew it the finest graces of 
the Christian family. 

The bright lads were educated in the Christian schools 
that had developed from those tiny beginnings in the 
creation of which their father had shared. The boys’ 
school was now a college, and the sons were leaders 
among their classmates in the college life, active in ath- 
letics, music, and social activities, as well as in the earnest 
spiritual revivals which came from time to time. 

The story must not be prolonged, fascinating as it 
would be. Of the four sons, the eldest, a man of rare 
charm and fine ability, died in his last year of prepara- 
tion in the medical college to become a physician. He 
was one who had already touched, by the charm of his 
personality and the transparent sincerity of his Christian 
faith, the lives of all who knew him. The second brother 


[191] 


See tl eae ARES UREA BUA. AMA MD NON Lye LL Uo 
China’s Challenge to Christianity 

AR Heer pr UL a UOC Ne a 
also devoted himself to medical service, but graduated 
from Li Hung Chang’s medical college, instead of the 
missionary institution. He entered government service at 
once, made a distinguished record as a teacher and demon- 
strator in his Alma Mater, won medical distinction inthe 
pneumonic plague epidemic in Manchuria, has studied in 
Europe and America, and is now a surgeon-general in the 
Chinese Government and head of one of its medical col- 
leges ; a man who has carried in all the difficult positions 
to be met with in semi-political life the strength and 
power of a strong character based on the Christian dy- 
namic, and the charm, grace, and simplicity which he 
learned in his Christian home. 

The third brother devoted himself to education, was 
on the staff of his Alma Mater and of another Christian 
college in China; went to America, where he graduated 
from Yale University; gave distinguished service in the 
Young Men’s Christian Association in America; during 
the War was in charge of the “Y” work for Chinese in 
the British and French labor battalions; and has been 
secretary to the director of one of China’s railways. He 
is a man of refinement, charm, and Christian grace, and is 
carrying his Christian principles into the field of trans- 
portation and communications. 

The next brother has chosen to follow the footsteps of 
his father. After his theological training in China, he 
studied theology in America and is now in direct Christian 
Service connected with the National Christian Council. 
He represents the keen-minded, forward-looking younger 

[192] 


Christianity Creative 


Christians who feel that Chinese should undertake fully 
the responsibility of directing the Christian enterprise in 
their native land through an indigenous Christian Church. 

The daughter prepared herself in China and America 
for kindergarten work. By the success of their children, 
the mother and father are today brought in contact with 
wide circles of refined and influential people to which 
they carry the Christian message. 

Such a story is typical of many that could be told. 
Those who would approve most heartily of the various 
forms of public service for social welfare carried out by 
the sons in these later days need to remember that these 
men would not be what they are and could never have 
done what they are doing, had it not been for the spiritual 
regeneration and personal salvation which came through 
the Christian gospel accepted by their parents. 

(10) The new individualism. Out of this spiritual re- 
generation has come the new individualism which is the 
fruit of the Christian recognition of the inestimable and 
unique value of every human being whatever his social 
status. 

(11) Devotion to a cause. The Chinese have a tradi- 
tion for personal loyalty, but the’ idea of being devoted 
to principles and to a cause is a new conception which 
has come very largely from Christianity. The willing- 
ness to suffer persecution and.often loss of life itself, as, 
for example, in the persecutions of the Boxers, has dem- 
onstrated a new energy which has come into Chinese life 
from divine sources. 


[193] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


The ratio which we found to exist between the total 
Christian population and the population of China was 
about one to one hundred. Compare with that proportion 
this—of one to three obtained by noting the number of 
Christians in a list of “The Twelve Greatest Living 
Chinese” chosen by vote in a competition conducted by 
the Weekly Review of Shanghai. Twelve of the fifty 
nominees were Christians and in the final voting General 
Feng Yi-hsiang, Dr. Wang Chung-hui, Dr. Wang 
Cheng-ting (C. T. Wang), and Mr. Yui Erh-chang 
(David Yui) were elected among the first twelve. The 
same proportion of Christians is maintained in the second 
group of twelve, and it seems fair to take this proportion 
as indicating Christian influence, not only among the 
leadership of China today, but in her life in general. 

Christianity in its one hundred and sixteen years has 
sent its representatives to every province in China. One 
half of the counties of the eighteen provinces are occupied. 
Although a tiny company, the influence of the Christian 
community is already such a leaven that there is hardly 
any phase of China’s modern life that has not felt the 
dynamic of Christian love. 

This outline of Christian achievement is itself an 
added challenge to the Christian enterprise. If these 
results have been possible in the difficult days of China’s 
transition from the traditionalism of the Manchu régime 
to the freedom and activity of the modern era, surely a 
far greater achievement is to be expected in the new 
era itself. 


[194] 


TENS SORES LYE Nic I A UO a 
Christianity Creative 


2. Facing the Present Situation 


This estimate of the Christian achievement in China 
has been given, not for the sake of satisfaction with 
Christian progress up to date in China, but to suggest the 
foundation on which Christianity can build a superstruc- 
ture adapted to the needs of the present time. In a sense, 
the preceding chapters of this book are all related to the 
presentation of the present situation in China. Surely 
the Christian enterprise must take serious account of 
the growing national consciousness of the Chinese and 
their resentment at the unjust aggressions which have 
marked so much of Western contact with their race. The 
Christian undertaking must in more expert fashion than 
it has yet done, deal with the great problems of the vast 
rural majority of China. It must also take account of 
the scientific and critical tendencies in Chinese thinking, 
and present a Christian apologetic that meets squarely all 
the currents and cross-currents of world thought today, 
for these are all represented among Chinese leaders. The 
Christian movement must recognize that it is itself but 
one among several efforts through which the Chinese 
today are carrying on their earnest quest for spiritual 
dynamic. 

Two additional items in the present situation in China 
call for special consideration: 

(1) The Christian movement is no longer either the 
only or the chief means by which modern ideals are being 
introduced to the Chinese. 

(2) The Christian movement must face criticism, and 

[195] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


the indifference and the hostility of educated Chinese 
leaders. 


It must be recognized that the Christian enterprise 
which was for long the pioneer in modern education, 
medicine, the introduction of Western science, and in 
emphasis upon individualism, has been overtaken by 
movements for which it has been itself in part the in- 
spiration, but which draw now for themselves directly 
from Western sources that are not distinctly connected 
with Christian influence. Such an overtaking of Christian 
pioneer work has already occurred in the case of educa- 
tion. The chief responsibility for the education of the 
Chinese must necessarily be borne by the government and 
by other Chinese agencies. No nation should tolerate the 
domination of foreign influence in a matter so vital to 
the national life. Already, in equipment, in the technical 
training of the teaching staff, and in the adoption of 
modern pedagogical science, educational institutions con- 
trolled by the Chinese, running all the way from kinder- 
gartens through the universities, are in many respects 
superior to most Christian institutions. Christian edu- 
cation in the future will have influence in China only as 
cooperation is carried out, and such a concentration of 
resources effected as to enable the institutions still main- 
tained to become models of their kind. The Chris- 
tian institutions should be more distinctive than they are 
now, both in the particular field of moral atmosphere and 
religious teaching, and in cultivating in every pupil 
strength of character and the spirit of devotion to public 

[196] 


Christianity Creative 


service. Medicine is another field in which Christian 
forces—the pioneers, and, for a long time, the only 
agencies—have been overtaken by other forces. The Na- 
tional Medical Association of China which has been in 
existence since 1910 represents a group of leaders who 
have already organized several excellent hospitals and 
medical colleges, have recognized every field in which 
medical service is needed, and are developing effective 
means for meeting those needs. 

Note again that the attack on gross superstitions and 
magical practises is by no means limited to Christian 
forces. The intellectual renaissance is bringing an em- 
phasis upon the spirit and methods of science. Its close 
relation to the most advanced scientific studies carried 
on in the West makes it necessary for a new Christian 
apologetic to meet a definite and vigorous attack on the 
defects and illiberality of religion. Within the field of 
social service, too, where Christian leadership still prevails 
for the most part, there are abundant signs that a larger 
use must be made of special training for Christian work- 
ers in the scientific technique which has been developed 
through experiment and extensive study in the West. 
Otherwise, a non-Christian Chinese social science will 
soon outdo the Christian ministry for social needs. 

It is plain that in each of these fields, as well as in 
others in which the tendencies indicated are present 
though not so noticeable as yet, only work of the best 
quality, as measured by the most exact modern stand- 
ards, should be tolerated by the Christian enterprise. 
Failure to render the best sort of service must be recog- 

[197] 3 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


nized not only as a danger because work of a lower 
quality would lay the Christian cause open to attack, but 
as positively up-Christian and a “sin against the light.” 


Second, we should note particularly the criticisms 
already leveled at the Christian undertaking by the anti- 
religious movement that was briefly referred to previ- 
ously. It is true that the movement found its particular 
occasion in the views of Mr. Bertrand Russell, which 
undoubtedly presented a perverted conception of re- 
ligion. Professor T’u Hsiao-shih, professor of the 
Philosophy of Religion at the National University of 
Peking, sums up Russell’s address in these two points: 

“1. Religion is an instrument that kills man. The 
wars in European history have all some relationship to 
religion. Even the great war that has just been con- 
cluded, so cruel in its processes and results, had its roots 
in certain religious beliefs which served as weapons of 
killing. 

“2. Religion in its belief in the supernatural is a 
hindrance to the progress of science.” 

He then comments as follows: 

“The first point, as I see it, is based upon disaffection 
rather than adequate reasoning and therefore does not 
have much value. The second point touches a problem of 
philosophy and ought to be studied with some care.” 

Professor T’u goes on to give his criticism of Russell: 

“As I see it, war is an expression of the animal nature 
of mankind and cannot dogmatically be said to be the 
sin of religion. If we must be compelled to lay this crime 


[198] 


Christianity Creative 


at the door of religion, then in like manner we must also 
say that the severe struggle for existence in the natural 
world—the strong killing the weak by the thousands—is 
also caused by religious teachings. Lions, tigers, cats, and 
dogs are then all to be considered as being religious? 
What an absurdity! 

“Such ideas are intentionally utilized by the anti- 
religious people to catch the attention of others so that 
religion may be thought to be a thing which is extremely 
cruel and evil. All this is based upon uninformed feeling 
that has very little foundation in reasoning, and therefore 
is not worth taking time to discuss.” 

It may be true that Russell charged against religion a 
sin of which human nature is more truly guilty. But 
whatever the misrepresentation which underlies the anti- 
religious spirit, the Christian enterprise must consider 
with care the attack developed by this movement, for the 
very misrepresentation indicates a certain failure in inter- 
preting Christianity. The anti-Christian manifesto at- 
tacks the Christian Church because of its association with 
capitalism and the acquisitive classes; other critics call 
attention to the evils of outworn theological conceptions, 
the pettiness of feuds between Christian denominational 
bodies, and the danger that the Christian movement, be- 
cause it is so closely connected with foreign control, 
should lead to a denationalizing of Chinese converts. It 
is significant that of all the religious views—Buddhistic, 
Mohammedan, Jewish—that have come to China from 
without, Christianity alone is popularly known as Yang 
Chiao, the specifically “Foreign Religion.” 

[199] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


Criticism of the Christian enterprise is by no means 
confined to those hostile to the undertaking. Chris- 
tian Chinese, eager to see the development of Christian- 
ity in China, are, themselves, very conscious of the chief 
defects in the present conduct of the work. Moreover, as 
Chinese themselves testify, some of the foreign Christian 
workers are the most severe critics of the undertaking 
and more conscious than others of their own failures 
and shortcomings. They are eager to confess their sin 
and to seek with humility of spirit and teachableness of 
heart to know how mistakes can be corrected and a greater 
measure of success achieved. Foreigners are keenly con- 
scious of the danger lest Western domination prevent that 
self-development of Chinese Christianity which alone can 
make it an effective force in the nation’s life, a force 
strong enough to achieve the salvation of the people. 

Denominationalism is another of the evils all too 
plainly manifest. The recent survey of Christian occu- 
pation shows that one hundred and thirty-four different 
Protestant denominational groups are at work in China. 
Fortunately, efforts toward cooperation, coordination, and 
union between Christian workers are much to the fore at 
the present time. Whatever excuse can be given for the 
continuance of denominational differences in the West, 
there is no question about the need for foregoing such 
distinctions in China. It is plain that only a united 
Christian effort can truly bear witness to the Lord who 
prayed that “all may be one” in order that the world 
might know Him. 

Westerners rather more than Chinese have criticized 

[200] 


Christianity Creative 


another aspect of the Christian enterprise; namely, its 
sonnection with political influence. While it is true that 
the right to religious freedom and to preach Christianity 
in inland China was secured by treaties with European 
and American powers, it is not fair to say, as some do, 
that the missionaries have been the direct agents either 
for the commercial or the political interests of the nations 
of which they were citizens. At times it may have been 
difficult for the Chinese to distinguish between the differ- 
ent sorts of foreigners who came to them, but there is 
no question today of a Chinese appreciation that the mis- 
sionaries as a class have been their friends and have 
stood ready to defend their interests against foreign ag- 
eression of every sort. Christian missionary criticism of 
ageressive Western policies with reference to China has 
been clearly expressed and widely proclaimed from 1834 
when the old Chinese Repository was filled with denun- 
ciation of the policies and practises that led to the Opium 
War. Many missionaries have realized the harm that 
was done to Christian work by allowing requests for 
indemnity for Christian property and lives to be included 
in the accounts presented to the Chinese government after 
the Boxer outbreak. Criticism of the Christian enter- 
prise for its political connections may not be as serious as 
some writers indicate, but there is no question about the 
necessity in the future of removing every trace of such 
connection. 


It is essential to hear the full case which critics of the 
Christian enterprise wish to present and to listea to the 


[201] 


Ip 


er oreey, 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


testimony of anti-religious Chinese, of Christian mission- 
aries and Christian Chinese, as well as of Western ob- 
servers outside of the movement, but it would be a mis- 
take to feel that the general attitude of the Chinese is 
hostile or even prevailingly critical toward the Christian 
enterprise. Professor T’u, who has been quoted already, 
represents a group of men who believe strongly that 
religious experience is necessary for every human being. 
He himself defines religion as “our faith in the transcen- 
dental and the thoughts, emotions, activities, and experi- 
ences that arise in moments when we feel that we are 
in contact with It.’ He is sympathetic with all religious 
effort and is eager to bring to men generally the inspira- 
tion of a faith that is reasonable, and he is friendly to 
Christian effort. 

The testimony of Mr. Ch’en Tu-hsiu is of even greater 
significance. Mr. Ch’en is one of the leaders in the Hsm 
Ch’ao movement and in some respects represents its most 
radical tendencies. While attacking what he believes to 
be the evils of organized and established religion, he rec- 
ognizes man’s need for spiritual inspiration and expresses 
a remarkable appreciation of the spirit and character of 
Jesus Christ. He says: 

“With regard to our attitude toward Christianity in 
the future, we must not only try to avoid further strife 


| and trouble, but to cultivate in our blood the lofty and 
| great personality of Jesus and his warm and rich affec- 


a rnomaene ti 


tion, that we may be saved from the chilly and dark pit 


' into which we have fallen. . .. We need not ask for 


instruction in Christian theology, we need not rely upon 
[202] 


Christianity Creative 


religious rituals, we need not seek for help in affiliating 
ourselves with this or that denomination, for we can 
directly knock at the door of Jesus, and ask for his lofty 
and great personality, and warm and rich affection, and 
let them be united within us.’ + 

Professor Ch’en then describes the personality and af- 
fection of Jesus under three headings. He mentions, 
first, his spirit of sacrifice; second, his spirit of forgive- 
ness; and third, his love of all men. “These are,’ Pro- 
fessor Ch’en continues, “what Jesus wants us to be, and 
_ these are the fundamental teachings of Christianity. ... 
_ Such fundamental teachings have never been destroyed by 
| science in the past, nor will they be in the future. . . .” 

Facing the total situation thus briefly outlined, do we 
not see that the Christian enterprise needs to make two 
special adjustments? 

. First, with the joy of seeing success from its efforts, 

it must recognize that its work will become progressively 
reenforced and enlarged by the social service that is de- 
veloping out of an educated, better-trained, and modern- 
minded public opinion. The Christian enterprise should 
consciously stress for-itself pioneer work in more remote 
fields to which the dynamic of non-Christian social service 
is not yet strong enough to send its workers. 

Second, the Christian enterprise needs to specialize 
even more than it already does upon the distinctive re- 
ligious and spiritual features of its work and thus pro- 
vide the dynamic upon which real progress rests. It need 
not fear being overtaken in this field. 

1 From an article in Hsin Tsing Nien. 


[203] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


The good news through Jesus Christ brings salvation. 
Through Him, men of every sort, from the lowest dregs 
of society to influential statesmen and international lead- 
ers, are reborn into newness of life. He is the door today 
through which Chinese are entering life, the “more 
abundant” life. 

The present situation adds to the incentives to the Chris- 
tian undertaking the challenge of criticism. Over against 
misrepresentation of religion, Christianity needs to dem- 
onstrate that “pure religion and undefiled’ which has not 
ceased to win the allegiance of the world. The charge of 
denominationalism must be answered by an evident 
unity of spirit and purpose on the part of all Christians. 
Such unity is already expressed in many cooperative un- 
dertakings in China. Their number should be increased 
and every divisive element within the Christian forces 
should be removed. The charge that it is too Western 
should be met by a deeper appreciation of the’ Oriental 
elements that were in Christianity from its beginning and 
by deeper respect for Chinese cultural heritage. Every 
Westerner connected with the enterprise needs to subordi- 
nate his own characteristics and temperament to the great 
purpose of presenting the spirit of Jesus. A human and 
inclusive Christianity is needed. With the watch-cry that 
China needs Christianity, there must be coupled the 
equivalent phrase—Christianity needs China. The appeal 
for a Christian China is reenforced by the realization that 
it is not only the salvation of China that is to be sought, 
but the salvation of the world through the Christianized 
cooperation of all peoples. 

[204] 


ROR? YAEL! eemon o 


Christianity Creative 


The problem before the Christian enterprise in China 
is to become Christlike. In the spirit of the Master who 
came not to destroy but to fulfil, all criticism and every 


‘thostile attack is overcome. There is a chance in the 
China of today, a wonderful and fascinating chance for 
“Christlike Christianity.” 


3. The Church of Christ in China 


“Only the fearless application of the spirit of Christ 
and his revolutionary principles of life and social right- 
eousness can save China. The church holds the key. 
Woe to her if she fails to use it.” This is the testimony 
of a secretary of the National Christian Council of 
China. The Church holds the key. What Church? 
As we turn to consider the means by which the 
essential Christian gospel can be adequately ministered 
to the Chinese people for their individual and social sal- 
vation, it becomes increasingly clear to the critic of, as 
well as to the worker in, the Christian enterprise that only 
a Chinese Christian Church can be the effective agency 
for the Christianizing and the salvation of China. Unless 
Christianity takes root in the life of the Chinese people 
and develops as an indigenous growth, there is no more 
chance for a permanent Christian influence upon Chinese 
life in the twentieth century than there was when Nes- 
torian Christianity made its effort in the seventh. The 
goal of every missionary worker, whether or not he be 
thoroughly conscious of it, is the establishment of a Chris- 
tian Church so naturally and thoroughly Chinese that its 

[205] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


own growth and development will eventually render un- 
necessary both the foreign missionary worker and the 
financial support from abroad for the undertaking. That 
this goal is something more than a noble ideal to be real- 
ized, if at all, only in future generations, is to be found in 
almost every report of Christian work that comes from 
China. 

In practically every section of China, especially in 
the more populous centers and in regions where Chris- 
»tian work has its largest history, one hears of Christian 
groups already fully or in part self-supporting. The in- 
‘dependent Chinese churches of Hongkong, Canton, 
-Fukien, Amoy, Tientsin, Foochow, and Peking testify 
‘that Christianity is being naturalized by the Chinese. 
*There are not only these indications of individual church 
groups, already well advanced toward independent self- 
conscious Christian life. At a great national Christian 
conference of Protestant Christian workers held.in Shang- 
hai in May, 1922, the voice of a Chinese Church, united, 
comprehensive, and national in scope was clearly heard. 
A majority of the eleven hundred delegates who gathered 
to take counsel together regarding the future of the Chris- 
tian effort in China were Chinese. They did not come to 
follow in the footsteps of foreign leaders, nor did the 
Western Christians seek to assert themselves. They 
were, rather, among the most eager to place the leader- 
ship of the Christian movement for China in Chinese 
hands. The chairman of the conference was Dr. Ch’eng 
Ching-yi, “a man with the marks of primate visibly 
stamped on his features and bearing” and manifest in the 

[206 | 


Christianity Creative 


courtesy and authority of every utterance. The business 
of the conference was conducted through a committee led 
by Mr. David Yui, himself not only an able Christian 
executive, but one recognized by the suffrage of his fellow 
countrymen as a national leader, and elected by them 
to be one of the “people’s’’ representatives to observe the 
conduct of Chinese interests at the Washington Disarma- 
ment Conference. | 

Chinese were well represented on every one of the five 
commissions that during the preceding year had studied: 

1, The. present state of Christianity in China. 

2. The future task of the Church. 

3. The message of the Church. 

4. The development of leadership for the work of the 
Church. 

5. Coordination and cooperation in the work of the 
Church. 

The reports of these commissions printed in both 
Chinese and English were in the hands of every delegate 
and formed the basis for all the discussion and business 
of the conference. 

The third commission, on “The Message of the 
Church,” generally regarded as the most important of 
them all, was most fittingly entirely in Chinese hands. 
The urgent and moving appeal of this message for an 
indigenous Church, an indigenous version of Holy Scrip- 
ture, the deeper consecration of the Church, social regen- 
eration, international brotherhood, and evangelism, should 
be more generally known than it is to Western Christians. 
Those who heard or who have read this message, feel 

[207 ] | 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


that it will be known as one of the historic expressions of 
the Spirit to the churches, a true message from the Spirit 
through the new-born church of China to sister churches 
throughout the world. Parts of the appeal for a united 
church with which the message begins, must be quoted : 

“We recognize most vividly the crying need of the 
Christian salvation for China today, and we firmly be- 
lieve that it is only the United Church that can save 
_ China, for our task is great, and enough strength can 
only be attained through solid unity. 

“We Chinese Christians who represent the various lead- 
ing denominations express our regret that we are di- 
vided by the denominationalism which comes from the 
West . . . which instead of being a source of inspiration, 
has been and is a source of confusion, bewilderment, and 
inefficiency. 

“Therefore, in the name of the Lord, Who prayed that 
all may be one, we appeal to all those who love the same 
Lord to follow His command and be united into one 
Church, catholic and indivisible, for the salvation of 
China.” 

Following the presentation of this message, the Rev. 
Timothy Ting-fang Lew, Dean of the School of Theology 
of Peking University, read an address in which, with the 
prophetic vision of a man of God, he sought to state 
the outstanding characteristics of the Church Chinese 
Christians should desire to have. I cannot forbear giving 
a bare outline of these characteristics, confident that even 
such a brief abstract will carry some impression of the 
inspiration manifest in the speaker and the occasion. He 

[208] 


Christianity Creative 


saw a Chinese Church that shall be a fearless fighter 
against sins, a faithful interpreter of Jesus, the flaming 
prophet of God, an obedient disciple of the Holy Spirit, 
a worthy teacher of the Bible, a general servant to the 
Chinese people, a defender of Christian unity and com- 
prehensiveness, a courageous experimenter in coopera- 
tion. It was in this compelling utterance that Dr. Lew 
coined the phrase, “She shall teach her members to agree 
to differ but resolve to love.” This has already been 
used by bodies of Western Christians as an inspiring 
motto in the discussion of differences and problems that 
face Western churches. 

To many it seemed as though the Church of China 
might take advantage of the varied points of view that 
have contributed to her life to seek with true Eastern in- 
sight a comprehensive synthesis and cooperation that will 
produce a richer Christian unity. 

While the Chinese leadership of this conference faced 
clearly its own responsibility for the Christian undertaking 
of the future, there was no mistaken emphasis on national- 
ism and no expression of a desire to cut itself off im- 
mediately or prematurely from the Western churches 
which have been, under God, the messengers of Christ 
to it. Dr. Lew, himself perhaps the most outspoken 
representative of a thoroughly Chinese Christianity, says: 

“Apart from cooperation she has no alternative. She 
- must vigorously carry out Christian cooperation between 
| missionaries and Chinese workers, through a revolution- 
_ ary change, if necessary, of plans and policies under God’s 
guidance. She must insist that racial prejudice, personal 
[209 ] | 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


habits, and denominational preferences be all sacrificed 
for the glory of God and for the service of our fellow 
man. She must insist that the young, the inexperienced, 
both among the missionaries and among the Chinese 
workers, respectfully accept the wisdom and guidance of 
their seniors according to their needs. She must also 
entreat her experienced seniors to give adequate oppor- 
tunity to the courage, the audacity, and the energy of the 
Church’s youth. And these, the seniors and the young, 
the experienced and the inexperienced, together must give 
unfettered freedom to experimentation and to insistent 
impulse to advance.” 
This great conference perpetuated its inspiration and 
influence by electing a National Christian Council of one 
hundred members to carry on the coordinated Christian 
campaign for the whole of China until the next national 
conference. This Council, representing the different 
regions, nationalities, and theological points of view of 
the entire Christian movement in China, held its first 
meeting in May of 1923 and has already begun to indicate 
the elements which it will emphasize for the next decade. 
‘f It manifested, first, “passion for the quickening of the re- 
| ligious life and spiritual experience of the Church itself,” 
' and second, “tremendous earnestness in regard to the 
application of Christianity to the common life.” The new- 
_ born self-consciousness of Chinese Christianity relates 
_ particularly to leadership, organization, and the formula- 
_ tion of its specific Christian message; but pressing as these 
_ problems are, the National Christian Council has “strong 

conviction that its chief service lies, not so much in devel- 

[210] 


Christianity Creative 


oping organization, as in seeking to strengthen all branches 
of the work on the spiritual side.” And to this end it is 
encouraging Christian groups everywhere during the cur- 
rent year to spend time to gain new perspective by seek- 
ing God and His purpose for the work so as to go back 
to daily tasks with fresh light and power. 


If the evidence here presented is true testimony to 
the spirit of the Church of Christ in China, need there 
be anxiety on the part of any group of Christians regard- 
ing the fundamental emphases of Chinese Christianity? 
May we not recognize the guidance of the Spirit who 
shall guide the Chinese followers of Jesus into all truth, 
inspiring them to phrase for themselves the essentials of 
the Faith? Loyalty to Christ is the only safeguard for 
any Christian group. Need we doubt the loyalty of our 
Chinese brethren? Shall we not trust the Spirit of God 
to lead them? 

Other eager questions throng to mind regarding the 
future development of the Chinese Church. What form 
of organization will it develop? How will its theological 
‘interests be expressed? What phrases will it create in 
which to set forth for itself its essential Christian ex- 
perience? Will the practical-minded Chinese give chal- 
lenging modern expression to the practical way of life 
that Jesus taught and lived? Might we even expect the 
Chinese to clarify the Christian message by distinguish- 
ing between Christian and Western elements in the form 
of Christianity that has been preached to them? No 
Westerner can attempt to prophesy the forms which the 


[211] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


Chinese will give to their own Christian experience and 
Christian faith. It would be wrong and un-Christlike 
to impose any sort of foreign domination upon a develop- 
ment which can only be successful and truly Christian 
if it be completely and truly a self-development. 


4. Creative Cooperation 


How can Christians in the West become most helpful 
to the process of Christian self-development in China? 
This is without doubt the critical problem before mis- 
sionary work in China at the present time. The problem 
is not to be solved by radical measures. No ardent 
Chinese Christian has yet proposed the withdrawal of 
missionary agencies. No Western Christian would sup- 
port unmodified continuance of paternalistic policies. 
What all alike desire is a relationship by which the inde- 
pendent growth of the Chinese Church may be encour- 
aged and strengthened; a relationship that will provide 
for an easy and normal transfer of responsibility to 
Chinese leadership and initiative. A Chinese leader has 
suggested a picture of the ideal relationship in the simile 
of the child Princess and her nurse. “The devoted and 
capable nurse is the foreign missionary force, but if she 
is true to her duty and her place, she never forgets that 
the toddling Princess is the daughter of a Royal house.” * 

Believing in the ideal which such a picture presents, 
the Western Christian will be able to adjust himself to 


1 Quoted by R. K. Evans in a speech at the National Chris- 
tian Conference, Shanghai, 1922. 
[212] 


Christianity Creative 


the varying conditions of Christian progress in China. 
There are already centers where the Chinese churches 
and Chinese leaders should take over full control of the 
Christian enterprise. But in many regions the help of 
the nurse is still needed. Adjustment of the details of 
the work must be left to the missionary on the field. But 
for the field worker and for his supporters at the home 
base in America, the ideal must be one of “creative co- 
operation.” It must be a form of cooperation that does © 
not bind or restrict the normal, self-reliant growth of the 
Chinese Christian Church. Especially it must be a co- 
operation that stimulates independent, spontaneous 
growth. 

Such an ideal lays upon the American church member 
opportunities for further service to China in the present 
and immediate future never surpassed in the history of 
advancing Christianity. Among these opportunities is 
that of interpreting China to the public opinion of 
America. The service rendered in the past in this field 
has not been fully recognized by patriotic Chinese. Mis- 
sionaries have been of all other foreigners the real friends 
of the Chinese. They have told of China’s weakness and 
need, for they sought to meet the need. But they have 

‘told also of China’s strength. The American people 
_know that China is a great country, that the Chinese are 
a law-abiding, moral, industrious, and virile people with 
}a great future before them. This knowledge came from 
\the missionary and the churches that heard his reports. 
American help to China through the “open door” policy, 
in the fight against opium, at the Paris peace conference, 
[213] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 

and in the recovery of Shantung rested on such sympa- 
thetic knowledge. Such service is more needed now than 
ever before. 

The American church member should learn something 
more of the history and culture of the Chinese, of the 
great periods of intellectual, administrative, literary, and 
religious development through which they have passed. 
He needs to qualify as an informed interpreter of the 
‘Chinese. He occupies a strategic position in relation to 
intelligent and sympathetic public opinion regarding 
China. He should keep himself informed about the lat- 
est developments in China, and he should, with his fel- 
low Christians, bring to bear upon his government such 
pressure as will make the contacts and relationships of 
our Government with this ancient people conform to 
Christian principles, thus pointing the way to the nations 
of the world to the new diplomacy based upon justice, 
brotherhood, and service. 

The direct support of missionary organizations is still 
the most direct means for most church members to share 
in the world-wide progress of the kingdom of God. 
Often it happens that the secretaries of mission boards 
are unable to take as vigorous action as they would like 
on the current problems of the work because they are 
under necessity of keeping in close touch with the church 
constituency. An alert and informed Church member- 
ship devoted to the ideal of creative cooperation with the 
Chinese will support its mission board in the necessary 
readjustments of program that new conditions on the 
field require. The layman does not influence missionary 


[214] 


Te SE 2A tet 18 Za lh Ml AR LL a AN NALD Ae EO 

Christianity Creative 
nae NUIRSL ISLA ALi ee ORBAN AND rs QD DAL.) eR ee RL 
policies by withdrawing support, but by increasing it, and 
by following up his gift with intelligent and constructive 
support of creative plans. The Christian occupation of 
China has only begun. However rapidly Chinese 
churches develop in the centers of long established 
Christian effort, there will be for years to come great 
regions for Christian pioneering. The Chinese churches 
cannot carry the burden of supporting and of staffing all 
the work of preaching and teaching that must be done. 
Our older, richer churches have continued responsibility 
for generous service in evangelistic pioneering. 

There are special tasks that stand out prominently. 
For a growing Chinese Church nothing is of greater im- 
portance than trained leaders. Christian colleges and 
universities and schools for theological training are in- 
dispensable. A limited number of such institutions 
should be maintained at ‘the highest standards if 
Christianity is to continue its influence on Chinese edu- 
cation. Such institutions cannot be adequately supported 
by funds raised in China. The endowment of these in- 
stitutions offers to American Christians an unparalleled 
opportunity for direct service to China and to the 
Chinese Church. The maintaining of scholarships and 
fellowships for qualified students, both men and women, 
is another service that will bring rich returns to China. 
Those who can share by their gifts in such service will 
enjoy living investments. Already many American 
Christians are represented in China by earnest Chinese 
to whom they gave the opportunities for enriched life 
and widened scope for service. The numerous high 

[215] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


schools and primary schools that feed the Christian col- 
leges and universities also need help. American churches 
and colleges have begun to accept special relationship to 
a particular school by bearing part of the financial burden 
or by maintaining a member of the staff or, perhaps, 
sending its own representative to the staff. Such 
friendly cooperation needs to be extended. China’s 
educational needs cannot be fully met by her own efforts, 
vigorous as those efforts are. As yet not more than six 
millions are provided for out of the eighty millions who 
are of school age. China welcomes help that is given in 
the spirit of cordial recognition of her own right to de- 
termine standards in education, help that sincerely seeks 
to maintain the very highest educational and moral ideals. 
Western Christians can find no more effective way in 
which to encourage the new China than by supplementing 
educational work. 


For many particular problems China needs, special 


boards of research. Facts need to be collected, tabulated, 
and analyzed. The old heritage of China needs to be 
scrutinized afresh, and every advantage taken of old 
knowledge, old methods, and old ideals that can be useful 
as roots on which to graft the new. In this field Western 
help might be more widely used. A remarkable service 
of this sort is being rendered by the Rockefeller Foun- 
dation in the field’of medicine and public health through 
its China Medical Board and Peking Union Medical Col- 
lege. In the direct training of its students, in the gen- 
erous help given to schools and hospitals, many of them 
of Christian origin, and in the exact scientific study 
[216] 


Christianity Creative 


undertaken by its specialists, this Board is helping the 
Chinese to grapple with one of its most difficult problems, 
the problem of physical well-being and improvement. 
Not a few Chinese see in this service one of the truest 
expressions of Christian devotion. Similar foundations 
or institutes for study are greatly needed in the field of 
social and economic problems. Earnest workers are at 
a disadvantage because they have not at hand facts in the 
case. Eager for the work of reconstruction, they are at 
a loss to know what plans are sound. Research and 
experiment of a thorough sort are needed. Some great- 
hearted group of Western Christians have a chance to 
found a center for research that would be of inestimable 
value for the next half-century of readjustment in China. 
Chinese resources are not sufficient. Cooperation in such 
study would help China: it would also help the whole 
world, for the speedier recovery of China will mean a 
sounder world. 

In the field of moral and spiritual research there are 
great needs and alluring possibilities. Far too little is 
known by either Chinese or Westerners of the moral and 
religious psychology of the Chinese. There is also very 
little understanding of the essential messages of the 
greater faiths of China. Study in this field will make it 
possible to relate the Christian message to the Chinese 
heart. There is needed a fresh and vital Christian 
apologetic related to China’s recognized and essential 
spiritual needs and drawing upon native springs of 
spiritual energy. 

Provision should be made for exchange lectureships by 

[217] | 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


which religious leaders and thinkers of the West can 
bring inspiration and vision to China and under which 
outstanding Chinese can be brought to America to inter- 
pret their own civilization and their social and Christian 
progress. 

In the modern eagerness for the so-called practical 
forms of service there is need to stress more than ever 
before the need for spiritual cooperation. ‘The service of 
prayer and intercession must not be forgotten. Through 
earnest prayer the American Christian can share in the 
responsibilities and opportunities that face his Chinese 
fellow Christians. His intercession will be for a strong, 
united China dominated by the spirit of Christ. His peti- 
tion will be for a China able to stand as full equal in the 
councils of the nations. He will pray for vision to under- 
stand the contribution that China has to make to the 
family of nations. His prayer will enlarge his own 
heart, making him humble for the un-Christian aspects 
of American life, helping him to see what is Christian 
and what is Western in that life, enabling him to feel the 
breadth and depth of God’s love for the whole human 
family. Such prayer will release forces that can remove 


mountains and open new highways for the Lord by which © 


He may lead men into a new history of brotherhood. 
The American church member can cooperate with the 
Church of China by the gift he makes to his mission 
board. He can share the missionary task with his 
church and mission board by supporting every move to- 
ward establishing a native and indigenous Christianity in 
China. He can use his influence to promote justice in 


[218] 


Christianity Creative 


international relations. He must enter the privileges of 
spiritual companionship in that creative work of prayer 
that binds all men together. But a more immediate and 
personal gift may yet be required.. The indigenous 
Church of China still needs and still wants the living gift 
of personal service from the West. The Chinese Church 
must lead the way more and more evidently... But it 
needs reenforcement. The Christian experience of de- 
voted followers of the Master is needed to encourage 
and supplement Chinese leaders. The call sounds still, 
“Come over and help us.” Westerners are needed still 
to be true “helpers” eager to take up whatever task is 
assigned them, able to demonstrate the true humility of 
Christ, without thought of position or power or self; 
anxious only to minister. The Church of China calls 
for men and women willing to enter into sympathetic re- 
lations with the people, able to follow Chinese leaders, 
qualified for special service in agriculture, in engineering, 
in medicine, in industry, in education, in the great work 
of relating men to God. As specialists in the more fully 
developed centers, or as pioneers in carrying the message 
to unoccupied regions, truly Christ-minded Westerners 
are called to the task of building the kingdom of God. 
They are called not to carry their own prejudices or par- 
tisanship, not to offer their Western ways, but simply to 
serve the need of men in the spirit of Him who saw in 
all mankind the brothers and sisters of the one Father. 

Western Christian service that sincerely anticipates 
_ Chinese control of the Christian task in China will not be 
questioning as to the division of authority and control. 

[219] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


It will only be eager for an assigned task. The transition 
from Mission Board to Chinese Church will not be made 
by abrupt break. By normal, natural growth funds and 
staff from the West will pass under the supervision of 
Chinese. Western churches will make gifts to Chinese 
churches as to equals. The cooperation of all Christian 
forces will be a disadvantage to none of them. Because 
it is Christ-like, such cooperation will be creative. 


5. China’s Christian Contribution to the World 


A creative Chinese Christianity is the only means 
through which to expect the salvation of China. West- 
erners can cooperate, but the Chinese alone can accom- 
plish the task. Moreover, it is only through a Christian 
Church in China that the world can be saved from the 
dangers which an unsocial, industrialized, or militarized 
China would threaten. 

But there is also a positive contribution to be expected 
from China to world culture, and a positive contribution 
from the Church in China to the Christian heritage. 
Bishop Montgomery in his notable volume, Mankind and 
the Church, speaks of the varied contributions to be ex- 
pected from each of the great races to the kingdom of 
God. To each race has been given special qualities, nec- 
essary for a complete humanity. Through the Church 
these separated characteristics will be gathered together 
again and reunited in their organic completeness. 

Among the greatest of the races stand the Chinese. 


41 Longmans, Green and Co., New York. $2.75. 
[220] 


Christianity Creative 


Their cultural history is notable, not only for its length, 
but for the many periods of unusual creative activity. 
The achievements of the Chinese spirit in inventions, 
such as paper and printing, the compass, gunpowder, silk, 
and porcelain, had a remarkable significance for modern 
Europe when they were carried westward in the days of 
the Mongols, overlords of the world. In philosophy, 
literature, art, and religion China has also a record of 
great achievement. The long line of great sages, artists, 
administrators, scholars, and teachers proves the power of 
the race to produce leaders. Far too little is known in 
the West of these leaders and of their achievement. 

In the international world which we now face spiritual 
exchanges between East and West are taking place in 
widely varied spheres of life and activity. More and 
more is realized the truth of Kipling’s lines: 


But there is neither East nor West, Border nor Breed nor Birth 
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from 
the ends of the earth! 


There is need for a more conscious exchange of hu- 
manity between East and West. As Tagore has clearly 
stated, there has been hitherto “no superfluous humanity” 
in the contacts between West and East. If East and 
West can frankly face each other as partners in a great 
human undertaking, eager to exchange the best humanity 
that each has developed out of its own peculiar experi- 
ence, there will be possible a world culture richer and 
more vital than any of the particular “cultures” which the 


[221] 


China’s Challenge to Christianity 


world has hitherto known. Up to the present culture has 
been regional, racial, or national. Today a real world- 
culture is possible. 

Surely it is a special part of the Christian enterprise 
to foster such sympathetic and humane exchanges among 
the races. In the intimate friendships of the Christian 
circle there should be a truer and deeper understanding 
of alien cultures than in other relations. The Christian 
spirit should be more ready to discern the strong char- 
acteristics of brother races. Christian contacts should 
be filled with the best humanity. The encouragement of 
loving regard should develop from each member his own 
peculiar contribution for the common good of the one 
body to which all belong. 

But there is a further contribution to be expected from 
the Chinese. Not only a contribution to world humanity, 
but a real contribution to the human understanding of 
Christ and of God. We must believe that China’s long 
training in family ethics under the inspiration of her 
great prophet Confucius has been a preparation intended 
by God to make possible a special interpretation of Him 
whom all men call Father. The view of nature that is 
so marked an expression of the Chinese spirit in painting 
and poetry, the intimacy of man with nature, the linkage 
of the human and the natural, is the basis of a “spiritual 
naturalism,” a “human naturalism” if you like, that may 
well supplement the naturalism of the West which tends, 
under the influence of the exact sciences, towards mech- 
anistic interpretations. The industry and cheerfulness 
of the Chinese, their practical habits and reasonableness, 

[222] 


Christianity Creative 


their fine courtesy and appreciation of human relation- 
ships, are these not qualities from which the Westerner 
may learn much? Re-energized under Christian inspira- 
tion these characteristics and these points of view may 
bring into prominence new aspects of the spirit of God. 
The spirit of the Eastern Chinese may yet understand 
more fully than Westerners do the Christ who came from 
the East. 

Such interracial cooperation in understanding God and 
in the exchange between all races of the best each has to 
offer, the whole process vitalized by the fulfilling and 
completing inspiration of Jesus Christ, was visioned by 
the Apostle Paul when he wrote: “Ye are no more 
strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with 
the saints and of the household of God, being built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus 
himself being the chief corner stone.” Paul realized that 
the only possible temple of the Lord God among men was 
a united humanity, an organic whole in which each part 
had need of all the others, a single body in which each 
several part had its own distinctive place and all the parts 
were equally necessary and mutually interdependent. 
The challenge to Christianity today the world over is to 
have faith in such a vision of an organic humanity; to 
live actively by that faith; to call men of every race and 
mation to unite in making the vision real on earth, and 
thus to prove that Christ is the true corner stone “in 
Whom ye also’’—Chinese, American, and every other 
people—“are builded together for a habitation of God in 
the Spirit.” 

[223] 


Appendix | 
A Reading List 


Because of the rapidly shifting conditions in China within 
recent years, the following list of books has been limited, with a 
few exceptions, to titles that have appeared within a decade. 
Care has been taken’ to state the prices current at the time the 
list was prepared, but these are subject to change. The books 
marked * are suggested as the nucleus of a small reference 
library for those groups that wish to purchase a few standard 
books of moderate price. 


Bibliographies 


Those who desire to consult fuller bibliographies on China are 
referred to the following: 


Best Hundred Books on China, The. A Finding List of Books 
in English. Selected and annotated by Frederick Wells 
Williams and the Rev. Frank W. Price. Yale University 
Library. New Haven, Conn. 1924. 20 cents. 

Bibliography compiled by F. Rawlinson, Editor of The Chinese 
Recorder. Appendix III in The China Mission Year Book, 
Part I: Articles; Part I]: Books. Committee of Reference 
and Counsel, 25 Madison Avenue, New York. 1923. 

Introductory Bibliography on China, An. W. REGINALD WHEELER. 
The so-called “Five-Foot Shelf” of books on China. This list 
was awarded first prize in a competition conducted in China 
in 1917. Included in China and the World War. The Mac- 
millan Co. New York. 1919. 

Selected Bibliography of Missionary Literature, A. Compiled by 
J. Lovell Murray. Revised edition 1920, including Supple- 


[224] 


Appendix I 


ment 1920-23 by Hollis W. Hering. Student Volunteer Move- 
ment. 25 Madison Avenue, New York. 60 cents, 


General 


Charm of the Middle Kingdom, The. J. M. Marsu. Little, 
Brown and Co., Boston. 1922. $3.00. 

* China: An Interpretation. JAMES W. BasuHrorp. Abingdon 
Press, New York. 1919. $2.50. 

* China Awakened. M. T. Z. Tyau. The Macmillan Co., New 
York. 1922. $5.00. 

China’s Story. Wiit1AmM Exxiot Grirris. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston. New edition. 1922. $2.00. 

China, Yesterday and Today. Epwarp THomas WiiiaMs. T. 
Y. Crowell*Co., New York. 1923. $4.00. 

Chinese Characteristics. ARTHUR HENDERSON SMITH. Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. 1900. $2.00. 


History and Politics 


‘Americans in Eastern Asia. Tyter Dennett. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. 1922. $5.00. 

An American Diplomat in China. Paut S. Retnscu. Doubleday, 
Page and Co., Garden City, N. Y. 1922. $4.00. 

* China in the Family of Nations. Henry T. Hopcxin. George 
H. Doran Co., New York. 1923. $2.00. 

* Civilization of China, The. H. A. Gites. Henry Holt Co., New 
York. 1911. 50 cents. 

* Development of China, The. Kennetu S. Latourette. Hough- 
ton Mifflin Co., Boston. 1923. $2.50. 

Fight for the Republic in China, The. B. L. Putnam WEALE 
(B. L. Simpson). Dodd, Mead and Co., New York. 1917. 
$3.50. 

* Foreign Relations of China, The. Mtnccuien JosHua Bau. 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 1921. $4.00. 

Marco Polo: Travels. Translated by W. Marspen. Everyman’s 
Library. E. P. Dutton Co., New York. 1908. 70 cents. 


[225] 


Appendix [ 


Modern Chinese History. Selected Readings. Warley Farns- 
worth MacNair. Commercial Press, Limited, Shanghai. 
Mex. $8.00. 

Outline of History. H. G. Wetrs. Chapters on China. The 
Macmillan Co., New York. 1920. 1 vol. edition. $5.00. 
Problem of China, The. Brrtranp Russet. The Century Co., 

New York. 1922. $2.00. 


Education 


China in the Family of Nations. See work cited under “History 
and Politics.” Chap. X, “The New Thought Movement.” 
China Today Through Chinese Eyes. Chap. II, “China’s Renais- 
sance’; Chap. III, “The Literary Revolution in China,’ 

George H. Doran Co., New York. 1923. $1.25. 

Christian Education and the National Consciousness i China. 
James B. Wesster. E. P. Dutton Co., New York. 1923. 
$2.50. 

*Christian Education in China. A study made by an Educational 
Commission representing the Mission Boards and Societies 
conducting work in China. Committee of Reference and 
Counsel, New York. 1922. $2.00. | 

Letters from China and Japan. JouHN and Attce CHAPMAN 
Dewey. E. P. Dutton Co., New York. 1923. $2.50. 


Social and Economic Conditions 


Changing Chinese, The. E. A. Ross. The Century Co., New 
York. 1911. $2.40. 

China Awakened. See work cited under “General.” 

China’s Place in the,Sun. Stantey HicuH. The Macmillan Co., 
New York. 1922. $1.75. 

Farmers of Forty Centuries. F. H. Kinc. Published by Mrs. F. 
H. King. Madison, Wisconsin. 1911. 

Peking: A Social Survey. Stoney D. GAmBLE. George H. Doran 
Co., New York. 1921. $5.00. 

[226] 


— 


——— 


Appendix I 


Village Life in China. Artour H. Smitrp. Fleming H. Revell 
Co., New York. 1899, $2.50. 


The Religions of China 


China Today Through Chinese Eyes. See work cited under “Edu- 
cation.’ Chap. IV, “The Confucian God-Idea”; Chap. V, 
“Present Tendencies in Chinese Buddhism.” 

* Historical Development of Religion in China. W. J. CLENNELL, 
E. P. Dutton Co., New York. 1917. $2.50. 

Readings in Economics in China. C. F. Remer. Commercial 
Press, Limited, Shanghai. Mex. $5.00. 

Religion of the Chinese, The. J. J. M. DeGroot. The Macmillan 
Co., New York. 1910. $1.25. 

Religions of Mankind, The. Epmunp Davison Soper. The 
Abingdon Press, New York. 1921. $3.00. 

Three Religions of China. Wit1am Epwarp SooTHILt. Oxford 
University Press, New York. New edition 1924. $2.85. 


Christianity in China 


China and Modern Medicine. Harotp BatMe. Student Volunteer 
Movement, New York. 1921. Cloth, $1.25. 

China Mission Year Book. Edited under the direction of the Na- 
tional Christian Council. An annual summary of developments 
in the Christian enterprise in China. Committee of Reference 
and Counsel. 25 Madison Avenue, New York. $2.50. 

* China Today Through Chinese Eyes. See work cited under 
“Education.” Chap. VI, “The Impression of Christianity 
Made upon the Chinese People Through Contact with the 
Christian Nations of the West”; Chap. VII, “The Chinese 
Church.” 

* China’s Real Revolution. Paut Hutcutnson. Missionary Edu- 
cation Movement, New York. 1924. 75 cents. 

Christian Occupation of China, The. Mitton T. Staurrer, Editor. 
China Continuation Committee, Shanghai. 1922. Out of print 


[227] 


Appendix I 


but available in missionary libraries. A monumental survey, 
indispensable for a careful study of the numerical strength and 
geographical distribution of the Christian forces in China. 

In China Now. China’s Need and the Christian Contribution. J. 
C. Kreyte. George H. Doran Co., New York. $1.50. 

Ming Kwong, City of the Morning Light. Mary Ninpe GAME- 
WELL. Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign 
Missions, West Medford, Mass. 1924. 75 cents. 

New Life Currents in China. Mary Ninpn—e GAMEWELL. Mis- 
sionary Education Movement, New York. 1919. Cloth, 75 
cents. 

Pioneering in Tibet. Apert L. SHELTON. Fleming H. Revell 
Co., New York. 1921. $1.00. 

Spread of Christianity in the Modern World, The. Epwarp Catp- 
WELL Moore. Chap. IX. University of Chicago Press, Chi- 
cago. 1919. $2.00. 


Biographies 


Calvin Wilson Mateer. Forty-five Years a Missionary in Shan- 
tung, China. DanieL FisHer. Westminster Press, 'Philadel- 
phia. 1911. $1.50. 

General Feng: “A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus.’ Marshall 
Broomhall. China Inland Mission, 237 School Lane, German- 
town, Pa.; 507 Church Street, Toronto. 35 cents. 

Greatheart of the South, John Todd Anderson, A. Medical mis- 
sionary. Gorpon Poteat. George H. Doran Co., New York. 
1921. $1.00. 

Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission. The Growth of a 
Work of God. Dr. and Mrs. Howarp Taytor. Morgan and 
Scott, London. 1915. 

Hunter Corbett: Fifty-six years a missionary in China. JAMES R. 
E. CrAIGHEAD. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 1921. 
$1.50. 

Jackson of Moukden. Mrs. Ducato Curistic. George H. Doran 
Co., New York. 1924. $1.35. 


[228] 


Appendix I 


Ministers of Mercy. James H. Franxiin. Chap. VII, “Peter 
Parker.” Chap. VIII, “John Kenneth Mackenzie.” Mission- 
ary Education Movement, New York. 1919. 75 cents. 

Nathan Sites. An Epic of the East. S. Moore Sites. Fleming 
H. Revell Co., New York. 1912. $1.50. 

Notable Women of Modern China. Marcaret E. Burton. Flem- 
ing H. Revell Co.. New York. 1912. $1.50. 

Robert Morrison. MarsHaLtt BroomHatt. Modern Series of 
Missionary Biography. George H. Doran Co., New York. 
1924. $1.50. 

Servants of the King. Rosert E. Speer. Chap. VI, “Eleanor 
Chestnut”; Chap. VII, “Matthew Tyson Yates.” Missionary 
Education Movement, New York. 1909. 75 cents. 

Shelton of Tibet. Mrs. A. R. Saetton. George H. Doran Co., 
New York. 1923. $2.00 

Torchbearers in China. Bast. MatHews and A. E, SouTHON. 
Missionary Education Movement, New York. 1924. 75 
cents. 

Virgil C. Hart: Missionary Statesman. E. I. Hart. George H. 
Doran Co., New York. 1917. $1.50. 


Literature 


Brief History of Chinese Philosophy, A. Datsirz TEITARO SUZUKI. 
(Probsthain’s Oriental series, vol. 7.) Probsthain and Co., 
London. 1914. 

Fir-Flower Tablets. Poems translated from the Chinese by FLor- 
ence AyscoucH and Amy Loweti. Houghton Mifflin Co., 
Boston. 1921. $3.00. 

History of Chinese Literature. Hersert A. Gues. D. Apple- 
ton and Co., New York. 1921. 

Lute of Jade, The. Translations by Cranmer-Bync. E. Pe 
Dutton and Co., New York. 1909. 50 cents. 

One Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems. An anthology of 
Chinese verse from the second century B.c. up to modern 
times. Also More Translations from the Chinese. Both 


[229] 


Appendix I 


volumes are translated by A. D. Watery. Alfred A. Knopf, 
New York. 1919. $2.00, each volume. 

Studies in the Chinese Drama. K. Buss. Four Seas Company, 
Boston. 1922. $5.00. 


Art 


Chinese Art Motives Interpreted. WuNIFRED V. S. TREDWELL. G.. 
P. Putman’s Sons, New York. 1915. $1.75. 

* Chinese Painters. RAPHAEL Petrucct. Translated from the 
French by Frances Seaver. Brentano, New York. $2.75. 

Outlines of Chinese Art. JoHN C. Fercuson. University of Chi- 
cago Press, Chicago. 1919. $3.00. 


Stories 


Bells of the Blue Pagoda. The Strange Enchantment of a Chinese 
Doctor. JEAN CARTER CocHRAN. Westminster Press, Phila- 
delphia. 1922. $1.75. 

Beyond the Moon-Gate. Being a diary of twelve years in the 
interior of the Middle Kingdom. WettHy Honsincer. The 
Abingdon Press, New York. 1924. 

Chinese Fairy Book, The. FrepertcK H. and R. WitHELM 
Martens. F. A. Stokes Co., New York. 1921. $2.50. 

Chinese Nights Entertainments. Stories of Old China. Brian 
Brown. Brentano, New York. 1922. $2.00. 

Foreign Magic. Jean Carter Cocuran. Missionary Education 
Movement, New York. 1919. $1.50. 

My Chinese Days. GutteLtMa F. Axsop. Little, Brown and Co., 
Boston. 1918. $2.00. 

New Lanterns in Old China. THeoporA MarsHatt INGLIS. 
Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. 1923. $1.25. 

Street of Precious Pearls, The. Nora Watn. The Woman’s 
Press, New York. 1921. 75 cents. 


[230] 


A Chronological Scaffold for Chinese History 


B.C. 


Appendix IT 


Mythological Figures 


P’an Ku 

The Tien Huang 

The Ti Huang 

The Jen Huang 

The Yu-chao (Nest-builders) 
Sui-Jen (Producer of Fire) 


2852-2738 Fu-Hsi, the legendary civilizer of 


2737-2705 


2705-2595 


2357-2258 
2258-2206 


2205-1766 


China. 
The first ruler recorded in the 
historical records of Sze-ma 
Ch’ien; taught use of nets; do- 
mestication of animals; a system 
of knotted cords for records. 
Hsien Nung 
Taught art of agriculture; use of 
herbs as medicine. 
Huang Ti 


Legendary History 


7 Sages of the Confucian 
Yao Legends. Story in the 
Shun { “Classics of History,” 
edited by Confucius. 

Tue Hsia DyNAStTY 

Yu the Great, and the deluge, 

2205-2197 B.C. 

Chien the Infamous, 1818-1766 

B.C. Mei Hsi, the Temptress. 


[231] 


Some Contemporary 


Persons and Events 
in Other Countries 


Pharaohs of the 
Great Pyramids 


in Egypt. 


Hammurabi 
Babylon. 


at 


Appendix II 


B.C. 
1766-1122 Tuer SHanc (Yin) Dynasty 
T’ang the Founder. Chou the 
Degenerate. Ta Chi, the heart- 
less beauty. 


Abraham in Ca- 


naan. 


Moses. 


History Based on Contemporary Records 


1122-255 THe Cuou Dynasty 

The Sage Founders: 

Wu Wang 

Wen Wang and Chou Kung. 
The Feudal Age in China. 
Earliest contemporary records in 
Chinese history found in the She 
King, or “Classic of Poetry,” and 
the “Spring and Autumn Annals,” 
722-481 B.C. 
The Age of the pioneer philoso- 
phers: 

Lao Tzu, 604. 

Confucius, 551. 

Moh Tzu. 

Mencius, 372. 

Chuang Tzu. 

Hsun Tzu. 


The Middle Ages 


255-206 Tue CyH’1in Dynasty 
Ch'in Shih Huang Ti 
The burning of the books, 213 
B.C. The Great Wall. 

206 B.C 


221 A.D. Tue Han Dynasty 
Recovery of literature. Reorgani- 
zation of the state. Introduction 
of Buddhism. 


. [232] 


David. 


Rome _ founded, 
753. 


Hebrew prophets. 


Buddha, died 
about 480. 

Early Greek phi- 
losophers. 

Alexander, died 
323. 

Asoka in India, 
264-228. 

Missionary Bud- 
dhism in Asia. 

Rome conquers 
Greece. 


Christ. Beginning 
of Christianity 
in Europe. 


Appendix [I 


A.D. 
221-265 


265-588 


589-617 


618-906 


907-960 
960-1127 


THe “Turee Kincpoms” 
Age of romantic chivalry. 

Tue DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EM- 

PIRE 

The period of darkness. 
barian settlements in China. 
Northern and Southern States. 
Wei Dynasty, 386-550. 
The Spread of Buddhism. For- 
eign monks from India. Chinese 
pilgrims to India. 

Tue Sur DYNASTY 
Close relations with Central Asia. 
The Grand Canal. 

Tue T’ANG DYNASTY 
China the most civilized country 
of the world. The great founder 
T’ai Tsung. Consolidation of the 
empire. Conquests. Renaissance 
of learning. Poetry and literature 
flourish. The fine arts developed. 

Tue FivE DYNASTIES 

Tue SuNG DYNASTY 
Wars with the Khitans. Social 
reforms of Wang An-shih. De- 
velopment of landscape painting. 
Second great period of Philoso- 
phy. Chu Hsi. 

China Divided 


Bar- 


1115-1234 Tue Cuin or Kin DYNASTY 


The Nu Chen Tartars. 


1127-1280 Tue SouTHERN SuNG DYNASTY 


[233] 


Barbarian In- 
roads into Eu- 
rope. 


Spread of Chris- 
tiamity. 


Halon 
476. 


Rome, 


Dark Ages in 
Europe. 

Mohammed, died 
632. 

Spread of Islam. 


Chariemagne, died 
814. 


Christian Scho- 
lasticism. 

Norman Conquest 
of England, 


1066. 


The Crusades. 

Magna Charta in 
England, 1215. 

Dante, died 1321. 


SAHA MAR AML CALDER DION tc AN TE DE mma BL 


Appendix II 


inc rca a st I eam 
Modern History 


A.D. 
1280-1368 Tue Yuan or Moncor Dynasty | 
China reunited. Jenghis Khan 
and Kublai Khan. ‘The Mongol] Roger Bacon, 
Empire which linked Europe and} died, 1293. 
the Far East. Marco Polo. 
Franciscan missionaries arrive. Prague Univer- 
1368-1644 Tue Mince DyNAsSTY sity. 
Restoration of Chinese rulers.) Turks take Con- 
Capital transferred to Peking.| stantinople, 1453. 
Bronze and lacquer work. Porce-} The beginnings of 
lains. Jesuit missionaries arrive. science. 
Arrival of European traders.) Renaissance and 
The Pragmatic | Philosopher, Reformation in 
Wang Yang Ming. Europe. 
1644-1911 Tue Cu’inc or Mancuu Dynasty American Revo- 
K’ang Hsi a conqueror, and pa- lution. 
tron of literature. CW’ien Lung} Democratic  de- 
a patron of the arts as well velopment in 
as warrior. Weaker successors. America and 
Trade with Europe and America.| Europe. 
Manchu isolation policies. Prot- 
estant missions. (Robert Morri-| Western Impe- 
son, 1807.) Gradual “Westerniza- rialism. 
tion.” Revolution begins, 1911. Industrial devel- 
opment. 
Christian missions 
throughout the 
1912- Tue Counc Hua Min Kuo world. 
The Chinese Republic. 


[234] 


Appendix III 


Findings of a Conference on the Relation of the 
Church to Industrial and Economic Conditions. 
Shanghai, ‘December 1-2, 1922. 


1. In view of the fact that a clear understanding of the prob- 
lems, forces, and values involved in the industrial problems is 
absolutely essential if the Church is to deal with it successfully, 
it should give first place to the promotion of such understanding 
among present and prospective pastors and other church com- 
munity leaders. To this end we recommend that the committee 
on The Relation of the Church to China’s Economic and Indus- 
trial Problems take at once the following steps: 

a. Publish periodically circulars or information stating what 
material is available for study courses, for the guidance of 
leaders in investigation and organization, and for the popu- 
larization of facts and principles; and prepare additional 
publications. 

b. Through teachers, speakers, and publications, promote in- 
dustrial understanding by special groups, such as students’ 
and pastors’ institutes, conferences, etc. 

2. We believe that such a fundamental reorganization of in- 
dustry as will recognize the primary value of human life is essen- 
tial for a truly Christian social order, and we welcome all dis- 
cussion and experiment leading in that direction, 

As steps towards the end which now faces the Church in China 
we recommend: 

a. That the time has come for the Church aggressively to 
promote the labor standards adopted by the National Chris- 
tian Conference, by leading in organized efforts to direct 
public opinion towards the securing and enforcing of labor 
legislation looking towards such a standard. 

b. That welfare work conducted in factories by Christian 


[235] 


Appendix III 


agencies, should be entered upon only where it will lead the 
employer to assume his own just responsibility for his em- 
ployees and eventually lead the laborers intelligently to care 
for their own welfare. 

c. It is the deliberate judgment of this meeting that it is the 
duty of all Christian employers to maintain these three 
minimum standards in the working conditions of their em- 
ployees, that in so far as possible Christian institutions 
should employ and patronize only those contractors and firms 
who maintain these standards, and that Christians should 
insist that construction and other work done on their prem- 
ises should be done in accordance with these standards. 

3. We urge strongly the organization of all Christian agencies 
in each center, including local churches, colleges, inter-church 
federations and the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian 
Associations in such a way that they shall be able to act and 
speak unitedly on local, social, and industrial problems. We be- 
lieve that every effort should be made to enlist the cooperation in 
each center of all persons interested in carrying out such a 
program. 

—Quoted from The Bulletin of the National Christian Council, 
April, 1923, 


[236] 


Appendix IV 


Statistical Tables 


Most of the statistics in these appendices are taken from The 
Christian Occupation of China, a General Survey of the numerical 
strength and geographical distribution of the Christian forces 
in China, made by the China Continuation Committee, 1918-21. 
Wherever later statistical returns are available, these have been 
substituted and their reference sources indicated. Special ac- 
knowledgment is made to Mr. Milton Stauffer, Survey Secretary 
and Editor, who has helped in the preparation of these pages. 


1. Area and Population of China 


AREA IN POPULA- DENSITY PER 
SQUARE MILES TION (a) SQUARE MILE 
TOTAL 
19 Provinces ...... 1,760,283 440 925 836 250 
Norte Chinatew. <.. 614,974 98 246,135 
Manchuria ...... 363,700 19,998,989 54 
MAT Tie es ate sate 3 60,000 27,312,673 456 
Shattung): v2.45 55,984 30,955,307 553 
BATSMAN oui ia a 60,000 10,891,878 182 
PROTISEWS ib oe oes 75,290 9,087,288 121 
Piast CDI is, ois ass 199,614 101,081,286 
Tae) le yo cke Me 38,610 33,678,611 872 
micheliane . ios) 36,680 22,909,822 624 
Piadiwer ida. ees: 54,826 20,002,166 365 
EY Peg a oe 69,498 24,490,687 353 
Central’ China’... .:. 222,780 90,640,960 
METER 5 yo. ood Wiese 2 67,954 32,547,366 479 
TAMOGl tes saxty ace 71,428 28,574,322 401 
ENTE a acd avers 83,398 29,519,272 he 
SOULM IDA sis. ci ere 223,550 63,134,613 
Mone Re. 46,330 17,067,277 368 
Kwangtung ..... 100,000 35,195,036 352 
Beevers tay ook. cis de 77,220 10,872,300 141 


[237] 


Appendix IV 


Table 1 continued 


WestChina’ 2..." » 499,365 87 822,842 
PLANS ue coun ue 125,483 6,083,565 48 
Szechwan e's .0s. 160,000 61,444,699 384 
Kweichow ....... 67,182 11,470,099 171 
Viagra) tas ol 202 146,700 8,824,479 60 


Special Administra- 
tive Districts: 


UT eye Pad PE es BOR NO Ba 1,445,000 7,780,000 2 

naa ee reece 550,340 1,750,000 3 

acy eR ny tana Vain 521,853 2,200,000 4 
GraNnp Torau (All | 

OT) We ies dished 4,277,476 452,655,836 105 


(a) Figures given in this table are the official estimates made 
in 1918-19 by the China Continuation Committee. They must not 
be confused with those of the Ninchengpu census (approximately 
340 million for all China) of 1910 in which households were 
counted rather than individuals, nor with the estimates of the 
Chinese Post Office (exceeding 430 million for all China), made 
in 1919, shortly after the Continuation Committee had begun 
its work. The estimates of the China Continuation Committee 
are based on population by hsiens (counties). 


China has never had a census of the Western type, and even 
now any census must necessarily be scientifically inaccurate. 
“Undoubtedly the exact population of China is considerably 
lower than most estimates now lead one to believe. ... Perhaps 
the present population of the Chinese Republic lies somewhere 
between 350 and 400 millions.’—The Christian Occupation of 
China, page 10. 


Notes for Table 2: Christian Workers in China 


(a) Statistics of Christian work in Batang (the late Dr. Shel- 
ton’s station) in Chwanpien, the most eastern district of Tibet, are 
included in those of Szechwan. 

(b) Conservative estimates for 1924 are as follows: missionary 
residential centers, approximately 710; total foreign missionary 
force, between 6,750 and 7,000; total employed Chinese force, over 


30,000, 3 
[238] 


Appendix IV 


North China 
Manchuria 


Bagh Ue a eae ea 
shantuny .... 
Shansh i genes 
Shensi? si. 2 


South China 


VERS) fe 5 | ON 


Kwangtung 


Kwangsi ..... 


Gr ve tats be hep en inee 


. Christian Workers in China 


TOTAL EMPLOYED 
CHINESE FORCE 
AT WORK 
(including 
TOTAL FOREIGN Evangelistic, 
MISSIONARY Educational, 


MISSIONARY FORCE Medical and 
RESIDENTIAL (including otherwise 
CENTERS wives ) technical ) 
» septa’ UbOL 1706 6,198 
ibe 28 172 893 
Raise 41 664 1,726 
eats 39 504 2,992 
ab ina 47 240 566 
rhe 32 126 421 
pO le 130 1,680 6,011 
Su 25 938 2,860 
fines 34 344 1,788 
eu 26 172 623 
Bee 45 226 740 
pe 128 1,181 3,682 
sandals 56 394 1,106 
Da et 32 389 1,347 
cESTEa 40 398 1,229 
alten 127 1,260 6,/04 
seal 41 454 3,590 
weet 73 730 2,838 
Aes: 13 76 276 
ratets 103 735 2,032 
aes 2 17 72 96 
ees 51 543 1,485 
ei 16 45 207 
Seas 19 75 244 


Appendix IV 


Table 2 continued 
Special Administrative 


RIIStPictSit eyo Lae, 18 74 105 
Mongolia os yoke hy 13 56 94 
POUT FATTO NS Wie wide sia 5 18 11 
Labetihad wee an 

GRAND TorTaL (All 
Gia ey es ates 693 (b) 6,636 (b) 24,732 (b) 


For (a) and (b), see page 238. 
3. The Christian Church in China 


EVANGELISTIC TOTAL COM- TOTAL CON- 
CENTERS (a) MUNICANTS STITUENCY (b) 
33 a iS. 
TOTAL 
19 Provinces ..4... 8,831 344,974 617,194 
ONOLEA uniIna (eos. sty 2,639 100,111 146,699 
Manchuria ty) oy 294 20,586 30,575 
CHP ets le 471 22,283 37,089 
Shantung eu! 1,330 41,821 53,480 
Siansine. Oven, 296 8,340. 13,298 
HEISE 1G Me ee 248 7,081 12,257 
Blast A hina ici oe 1,839 70,582 145,090 
Kigagstiwis. fous. 460 29,783 70,084 
Chekiane’ ).02/.54 918 27,902 48,079 
Ankhwer i So: 189 5,070 11,608 
KAN SSI eo), 272 7,827 15,319 
Central 'Chinaiy.0 1,208 38,161 69 383 
PA OLEATI MG een tale ~ 455 12,418 20,636 
PPI DEN Ht au oae 344 14,725 26,364 
MINAYy oR aN 409 11,018 22,383 
Pea eC hifia. cya. 2,296 104,568 169,974 
iene SR: 1,164 38,584 86,094 
Kwangtung ..... 1,061 61,262 78,519 
Wiwanesi it. Spee 71 4,722 5,361 


[240] 


Appendix IV 


Table 3 continued 


West China ...... 849 SL552 86,048 
Manstiryes ae es he 38 1,336 2,519 
Szech waits... . 487 12,954 32,942 
Kweichow ...... 150 9,446 20,873 
WH ss oo. ae 174 7,816 29,714 

Special Administra- 

tive Districts .. 55 879 1,417 
Mongolia ....... 50 856 1,360 
EOMARTIO J cise lok 5 23 57 
LEDets Ala its tee 


ey is Ey BN ROO 8,886 345,853 (c) 618,611 


—_——. 


(a) “An evangelistic center is any place where, either (1) 
there exists a community of not less than ten Christian com- 
municants and (or) baptized adults (whether in the form of a 
permanent church organization or not), and a weekly religious 
service is held; or (2) there permanently resides a Christian 
Chinese worker recognized by both church and mission (whether 
in the employ of the mission or church or not is immaterial) ; 
and a weekly religious service is held.”—Christian Occupation of 
China, page 40. 

(b) The term Christian constituency includes (1) baptized 
communicants (full church members); (2) baptized non-com- 
municants, both infants and adults; and (3) candidates prepar- 
ing for baptism (catechumens). It does not include non-Chris- 
tian students in mission or church schools, or irregular non- 
Christian church attendants.—The Christian Occupation of China, 
page 40. 

(c) Conservative estimates for 1924 approximate 400,000 with 
proportionate increase in evangelistic centers and the total Chris- 
tian constituency. 


[241] 


Appendix IV 


4. Students in Christian Primary and Middle Schools (a) 


STUDENTS IN 
TOTAL MIDDLE TOTAL UNDER MISSION 
SCHOOL CHRISTIAN PRIMARY 
STUDENTS (b) INSTRUCTION (c) scHooLs (d) 
1. 2: 3} 


TOTAL 


19 Provinces ...... 15,213 198,821 53 
North China ...... 4.253 49 134 45 
Manebiiria (0s. 521 7,599 34 
CHiln ier Seas 1,953 13,695 oo 
ya ise he wt 1,489 21,354 47 
Doce ed sen cin ryt 267 4,240 48 
PARSE Cis cy adele 23 2,246 32 
ast \GHINA hae ws 4833 41,146 aps 
Riangsit) eect 33323 19,888 56 
Ghekians issers, 974 10,592 34 
PAS barre th reid oh ih 270 5,604 105 
Ka arosan edo ara. 266 5,062 62 
Central China .... 1,786 26,878 66 
‘ia lop erste MANIA cat 275 7,107 55 
Ren cee ye 852 11,086 70 
PPO bn oe 659 8,685 73 
SSMU MLA oe e's 3,456 58,699 53 
etalon et) fis al ete 1,510 31,690 78 
Kwanegtung ..... ‘1,929 25,496 38 
wvrangsi ese) 17  : 32 
Mest: China si...’ 885 22,964 70 
pS i A DE 486 36 
Szechwan ....... 875 18,664 138 
Kweichow ...... 1,798 19 
OV UIITCAMA SE ole. «g's 10 2,016 25 


“i 


Appendix IV; 


Table 4 continued 
Special Administra- 


tive Districts .. 873 
MROON Arr. os st: 799 93 
Sinkiange <3. 0.3) 74 321 
PEMD pr ited ev cy ave 
Granp ToTaL (All 
ctiitia igus cuter. 15,213:¢c) 199,694 (e) 57 


(a) College students in China: “Modern college education in 
China was begun by the Christian Church, and until a few years 
ago the Christian colleges had the field largely to themselves. 
That situation is now completely altered. Government and pri- 
vate colleges and universities are being established in all parts 
of the country, with a student body that already outnumbers the 
Christian students ten to one. 

“The Association of Christian Colleges and Universities includes 
fourteen institutions doing full college work, with 2,017 students ; 
and there are at least two other colleges not yet affiliated with the 
Association.” 

“The number of women college students is about 150, or 7.5 
per cent of the total.”—The Chinese Church as Revealed in The 
National Christian Conference, held in Shanghat, pp. 115, 116. 

(b) High school. 

(c) Lower and Higher Primary and Middle schools. Approxi- 


3 mately 70 per cent of the Primary School students and 83 per cent 


of the Middle School students are boys. 

(d) Lower and Higher schools per 100 communicants. 

(e) An increase of slightly less than five per cent annually has 
been reported since 1921. 


Notes for Table 5: Degree of Christian Occupation of China 


(a) Appendix C. on p. lvi of The Christian Occupation of 
China gives the best figures available from incomplete data on the 
Roman Catholic Church in China: European Priests, 1,351; 
Chinese Priests, 1,350; Churches and Chapels, 9,317; Total Num- 
ber of Christians, 1,961,592. 

(b) Area (in square miles) lying beyond 10 miles of any re- 
ported Protestant Evangelistic center. 

(c) Per cent of total area of the province lying beyond 10 miles 
of any reported Evangelistic center. See definition of Evangelistic 
center on page 241. 


[243] 


Appendix IV 


5. Degree of Christian Occupation (a) 


PER CENT 
MISSION-= CHINESE OF 
ARIES EMPLOYED UNOCCUPIED UNOCCUPIED 


AT WORK WORKERS AREA (b) ~ AREA (Cc) 
Per 1,000,000 population 
a SG 2: 


an 4, 
19 Provinces ..... 15 56 819,900 46% 
NorthiChinai..0i 17 63 333,400 54% 
Manchuria ..... 9 45 284,400 77% 
Chink (eG ons 0 24 63 6,300 10%... 
Shantiinge ict: 16 84 2,100 4% 
Nel picts eA AD A Rp 22 52 15,800 26% 
SHO ie Wt 14 47 24,800 33% 
Base Wenina ec kis 17 59 40,100 20% 
Kianesy ios ie 28 85 5,200 13% 
Chektang \.40 3.5. 15 79 3,900 11% 
Anhwe oooh 8 31 13,900 25% 
ESRI OST (sta oy Voss 9 31 17,100 _ 24% 
Central, China “ist 13 4] 56,400 25% 
FIGHAT West hes 12 34 12,400 18% 
Fnpeh 4 8 octet 14 47 25,900 36% 
Hanan vecyan our 14 42 18,100 22% 
South china (3.7. 20 106 70,800 31% 
Peden oes 27 211 4 300 9% 
Kwangtung .... 21 81 8,900 9% 
Kwanest i nt. 7 26 57,600 75% 
West'China\.5). 4". Me | 319,200 64% 
eansic ues. 12 16 108,000 86% 
Szechwan ..... 9 24 85,900 53% 
Kweichow ..... 4 18 34,600 50% 
Mirinan: ich Wes 9 2h 90,700 62% 


For (a), (b), and (c), see page 243. 
[244] 


Appendix IV, 


THE UNOCCUPIED AREAS IN CHINA 


_ Areas in black are still ten miles or more beyond any 
reported Evangelistic Center. 
—The Christian Occupation of China. 


[245] 


A PRONOUNCING INDEX 


Note: Because there are so many sounds in the Chinese lan- 
guage for which there are no English equivalents, it is impossible 
to indicate their pronunciation by Roman letters with more than 
approximate accuracy. The following general rules may be ob- 
served in reading the phonetic spellings contained in this index. 


1. a always long, as in father. 


2. Two vowels together should be pronounced as a diphthong. 
3. Syllables ending in ow rhyme with how. 
4. u as in hump. 5. t as in the German umlaut. 


Agriculture, indigenous methods of, 
70, 76-79; variety in, 82; missions 
and, 103. 

Anti- religious movements, 170-172. 

Area and population, statistical ta- 
bles of, Appendix IV 


Boxer uprising, the, 13, 17, 33, 46. 
Buddhism, 151-158. 
Butterfield, Kenyon Lange, 151, 103. 


Canton Christian College, 104. 

Chang Tso-lin (Jang dzoa-lin), 35. 

Ch’en Huan-chang (Chun ‘Hwan- 
jang), Dr., 145-147. 

Ch’en Tieh- shang (Chun Too-shan), 


165. 

chen Tu-hsiu (Chun Doo-shiew), 
126, 202, 203. 

Ch’eng Ching- -yi (Chung 
Dr., 148, 206. 

Chien Lung, Emperor, 42. 

Chien-Men (Chien-Mun), 33. 

China, present internal condition of, 
1, 2: occasion for international 
conflicts of, 4, 13, 17; early con- 
tacts of, with world, 7, 9, 10; for- 
eign concessions in, 10; prejudice 
against West in, 11, 15, 42; use 
of Western products in, 15, 16, 
43; famine relief in, 16, 133; 
merchant class of, 18; literary men 
of, 19, 92, 93; young reformers in, 
19-21, 903 modernization of, 29- 
34; political changes in, 35- 40; 
foreign aggressions against, 37; 
personal rivalries within, 38; eco- 
nomic changes in, 40- 52; literary 
examination system in, 93, 114; 
intellectual movements in, 109- 


jing-ee), 


114, 116, 123, 126-128; social re- 
construction in, 133-136. 

China Medical Board (Rockefeller 
Foundation), 183. 

Chin Dynasty, G75 

Chinese, the, characteristics of, 2, 
78, 91, GSM AAG 222. 22s culture 
of, of Oh 195" 1105 113, 221; ex- 
clusiveness of, FiirSs social habits 
of, 8, 9; officials, 10; criticism of 
the West by, 21, 22, 24; relation 
of, to the West, 129, 130. 

Chinese Republic, the, 14) 2eeo25, 
90, 96, 114, 147, 148. ' 

Ching Dynasty, 42. 

Chou (Joe) Dynasty, 112, 143. 

Christian Church in China, impor- 
tance of, 28; relation of, to in- 
dustrialism, 58, 235-236; to social 
service, 59, 184; National Chris- 
tian Conference of, 61, 205; na- 
tional industrial commission of, 
63, 64; activities and problems of, 
65. 69; “home missionary movement 
of, 165; recent developments of, , 
205- 212; relation between Western 
Christzans and, 212-220; contribu- 
tion of, to world, 220- 2233," Stas 
tistical tables of, Appendix IV. 

Christianity, handicaps to, 24; con- 
tributions of; 252 128s "industrial- 
ism and, 57; economics and, 99- 
100, 235-236; rural problems and, 
99- 103, 106, 107; intellectual 
movements and, 121; Chinese re- 
ligions and. 176- 177; influence of, 
on, status of women, 186-188; need 
of, for China’s contribution, 204. 

Christian enterprise, the, influence 
of, 3,°4; obstacles to, "25; indus- 


[246] 


A Pronouncing Index 


trialism and, 58-64; influence of, 
on intellectual movements, 121, 
185; new tide of thought and, 138, 
139; demonstration against, 170, 
199; membership of, 180-182; 
achievements of, 182-194; present 
problems of, 195-204; criticisms 
of, 200-203; relation of, to Chinese 
Church, 212; statistical tables of, 
Appendix IV. 

Christian occupation, statistical ta- 
bles of degree of, Appendix IV. 
Christian workers in China, statisti- 

cal table of, Appendix IV. 
Confucianism, 144-151. 
Confucius (K’ung-Tzu), 8, 112, 131, 
144, 145, 146, 222. 


cats tendencies toward, 20, 
Dennett, Tyler, quoted, 44, 57, 58. 
Dewey, John, viii, 116, 132, 
Driesch, Hans, 132. 

Dynasties, Tang, 5, 112, 113; Mon- 
gol, 8, 33; Ming, 8, 143, 167; 
Manchu, 13, 15, 42, 43, 46, 146; 
Ching, 42; Chou, 112, 143; Ch'in, 
117; Wei, 143. See Appendix II. 


Economic conditions, 27, 40-52, 99- 
100. See also Appendix III. 

Eddy, Sherwood, 64. 

Education, (12) \''13, 19333, 92,93, 
114-116. See also Appendix IV. 

Empress Dowager (Tzu Hsi), 122. 

Evangelistic centers, statistical tables 
of, Appendix IV. 


Famine relief, 16, 133. 

Farmers, life of, 71-75; methods of, 
76-79, 85; problems of, 95-97, 103. 

Federation of the Women’s Boards 
of Foreign Missions, Social Serv- 
ice Commission of, 59. 

Feng-shui (Fung-shuay), 159 

Feng Yu-hsiang (Fung yte-shéang), 
General, 189, 194. 

Festivals, 83-89. 


Gild system, the, 20, 52. 
Ginling (Jinling), 187. 


Han (Han), 112, 117. 

Health campaigns, 134. 

Hodgkin, Dr. Henry T., quoted, 1, 3. 
Hodous, Lewis, quoted, 166, 167 
Holidays, 83-89. 

Honan (Huh-nan), 73. . 

Hong Kong, 10; strike in, 54. 


Hopei (Huh bay), 32. 

Hou Sheng-ch’ing, 164, 165. 

Hsin Ch’ao (Shin Chow), 108 ff. 

Hu Shih-chih (Hoo Shirr-jirr), 119, 
126, 130, 131, 172, 174. 


Industrialism, effect of, on Chinese 
culture, 54-57; attitude of Chris- 
tian organizations toward, 58-69. 
See also Appendix III. 

Industries, 45-48; home, 104. 

Intellectual movements, 27, 109-114, 
116, 123, 126-132; bearing of, upon 
religion, 170-175. 


Japan, relations of China with, 11, 
17,,18, 90,423, 


K’ang Hsi (Kang She), Emperor, 42. 

Kang (kang), 73. 

Kansu (Gansoo), 81. 

Kaoliang (Gow liang), 83. 

King, Professor F. H., 78. 

Koo, Wellington, 35. 

Kuan-hua (Gwan-whah), 118, 121, 
185. 

Kuang Hsii, Emperor, 122. 

K’ung Tzu (Koong dz), 131. 

K’ung Chiao (Koong Geow), 144. 

Kuo (gwoh), 73. 

Kuo (Gwoh), P. W., quoted, 185. 


Labor movements, 52-54. 

Lao-Tzu (Laow dz), 112, 131, 158- 
160, 164. 

Lew, T. T., 129; quoted, 208, 209. 

Li Hung Chang (Lee Hoong Jang), 
43,183, 192. 

Liang Ch’i-Ch’ao, 131. 

Liu Min-tseng, 161. 


Mackenzie, Dr. Kenneth, 183. 
Manchu Dynasty, 13, 15, 42, 43, 46, 


146. 

Mencius, 146, 147. 

Millican, Frank, quoted, 154. 

Ming Dynasty, 8, 143, 167. 

Missionaries in China, statistical ta- 
bles of, Appendix IV. 

Missions, attitude of Chinese toward, 
24; policies of, 25, 26; medical, 
1&2, 183; agricultural, 183; social 
service in, 184; educational, 184- 
186; literary, 185; women in, 186- 


188. 
Moh-Tzu (Moah-dz), 112, 131. 
Mongol Dynasty, 8, 33. 
Morrison, Robert, 143, 180. 


[247] 


A Pronouncing Index 


National Association for Advance- 
ment of Education, 115, 

National Christian Conference, 60- 
63, 171, 205-206. 

National Christian Council, 192, 
205, 210. 

National Christian Industries Asso- 
ciation, 67. 

operas Education Association, 114, 
1 


National Industrial Commission, 63- 
64 


Nanking, report on church and _ in- 
dustry of Christians in, 66; Uni- 
versity of, 104. 


Gpen door policy, 22, 
Opium War, 10. 


Pai Hua Yun Tung (Bye Hwa Yoon 
Doong), 119. 

Paotingfu (Bow ding foo), 189. 

Paris Conference, relation of China 
to, 23, 123, 189, 213. 

Parker, Albert C., quoted, 168. 

Parker, Dr. Peter, 182. 

Pei Yang (Bay Vang) University, 
31 


Peking, contrasts in, 30-34; World’s 
Student Christian Federation Con- 
ference in, 60, 61; students in, 
124; National University of, 174. 

Peking-Moukden (Mook-den) Rail- 
way, 32, 46. 


Reformers, student, 19-21, 90. 

Reichelt, Karl Ludwig, 155, 156. 

ucts ine 27, 99, 100, 140-169, 170- 
172. 

Republic. See Chinese Republic. 

Rockefeller Foundation, China Med- 
ical Board, 183. 

Roman Catholic Christians, 180. 

Rural population, 70-71. 

Russell, Bertrand, 116, 132, 170, 171, 
198, 199, 

Russo-Japanese War, 33. 


Shanghai, industrial center, 45, 48, 
49, 53, 55; womién’s eonference 
in, 58; National Christian Confer- 
ence in, 60. 

nari Province, 13, 79, 123, 125, 
189, 

Social Service, relation of the Chris- 
tian Church to, 59, 184. 

Soderblom, Dr. Nathan, 173. 

Statistical tables, Appendix IV. 

Stevens, FE. W., quoted, 1, 3. 


Student Movement, 17, 20, 33, 90, 
122-126, 133. 

Students in Christian schools, sta- 
istical tables of, Appendix IV. 

Sun Yat-sen, 35. 

Sze (Zee), Alfred, 36. 

Szechwan (S-s-s chwan), 81. 


Tagore, Rabindranath, 128, 132. 

T’ai Hsii (Tai Shit), 153-155, 157. 

T’ao, L. K., Professor, 121, 131. 

Tao Yuan (Dow Yuan), 160 ff. 

Tang Dynasty (Tang), 5, 112, 113. 

Taoism (Dowism), 158-164. 

Tayler, Prof. J. B., quoted, 52. 

Tientsin (Tinsin), contrasts between, 
1897 and 1908, 30-34. 

SL ineioVE Real 

Ts’ai i 


T’u Hsiao-shih (Too Sheow-she), 
Professor, quoted, 198, 199, 202. 

Tung Chow (Toong Jo), 149, 152. 

Tzu Hsi (Dz She), Empress Dow- 
ager, 122, 


Village organization, 80, 81. 


Wall, the Great Chinese, 6, 7. 

Wang (Wong), C. T., 189, 194. 

Wang Ch’ung-hui (Wong Joong- 
whey), 35, 189, 194, [158. 

Wang T’uh Shen (Wong Too Shun), 

Washington Conference, relation of 
China to, 23, 126, 207. 

Wei Dynasty (Way), 143. 

Women, status of rural, 97, 98. 

World’s Student Christian Federa- 
tion, 60, 171. 

Wuchang (Woo chang), 59. 

Wu Pei-fu (Woo Pay-foo), 35. 


Yen Hsi-shan (Yen She-shan), Goy- 
ernor, 149, 

Yen, W. W., 35, 189. 

Young Men’s Christian Association, 
60; health campaigns, 134. 

Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
tion, industrial policy, 60. 

Yuan Shih-kai, 32. 

Yui Ehr-chang (David Yui), 194, 
207. 

Yung Cheng, Emperor, 42. 


Zung, Miss Wei Tsung (Zung Way 
Zung), 60. 


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